Stand Beside Me
by Narutorment
Summary: Hinata has always been watching him, but now it's time for her to step up and prove to him that he's not the only one who doesn't ever give up. So when Naruto comes to find out that he's to be the next Hokage around the same time that Sasuke is rumored to be planning on destroying the village, Hinata realizes her personal goals and his might not align as seamlessly as she thought.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto.

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The village hidden in the leaves was prospering. From an outside perspective, one might not be able to see it immediately, not when there were still so many barren zones and homeless citizens and traumatized families roaming about. But for a village that had quite literally been wiped off the map only to have it's entire population be revitalized only four years ago, Konohagakure was certainly growing. The sky was as ever blue as it always seemed to be over Konoha, with a rare splashing of clouds so white they seemed blinding to look upon. Birds dotted the skies and were carried on the wind, floating, hovering, watching as rebirth occurred beneath them.

Konoha was now built into the giant crater leftover from Pain's attack, though that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Konoha was still entirely surrounded by trees so tall it was hard to see the tops of their canopies; still hidden away amongst the greenest landscape of all the hidden villages. The livestock had come back in full so that there was no absence of deer or rabbits or any small critters running amongst Konoha's borders.

The actual construction of Konoha had been and still was long and taxing work and left the village and all of it's patrons vulnerable, but even with all of this hardship, Konoha's ninja force was still one of the strongest of all the hidden villages, and any and all attacks had so far managed to be fended off. Lady Tsunade had awoken from a coma and was back to leading the village, back to enforcing her strict rules and running the nation she'd grown to love like her own child. She'd overseen massive organizations of ninja and civilian alike to rebuild what once was a great nation, and now four years later the homeless rate was marginally lessened, though not entirely wiped out. Crimes had dropped and morale had heightened, and now in this nation of growth and rebirth more and more children were being born and the structures long lost to the people were renewed and running. Ichiraku Ramen was one such structure, and Uzumaki Naruto wasn't the only person who was happy to see it reopened, though he was certainly the most enthused of the lot.

Buildings stood sturdy and tall, layered particularly in the style Konoha was always praised for, with easily accessible rooftops and wires and cables strung all throughout. The front gates had been rebuilt, with the surrounding wall as tall and foreboding along the perimeter of the village as it had ever been, though the actual gates remained as open and welcoming as they had before the invasion, repainted in a shade of evergreen so deep it could blend right into the surrounding growth. Trees had been planted all throughout the growing village and were already growing tall enough to skim over the rooftops, and the academy itself was surrounded by some that had been given boosted growth thanks to one Tenzou so as to offer plenty of shade and target practice.

And the people themselves were continuing to grow; ninjas, civilians, students and teachers, parents and widows and those who had lost people Pain could not revive. They all leant their talents and their time to the village, working together and finding solidarity in rebuilding the only place they'd ever called home. Men and women alike worked on the construction of buildings all over the village, hammering and nailing and welding and setting beams, working high up until they felt they could run their fingers through the clouds, and down deep into the earth to create safe bunkers and basements and underground tunnels. Stalls were spread periodically over the land to offer rations of food and water, the people working there a mixture of overly generous and justifiably surly depending on the day. Children ran through the streets, unwatched and unsupervised as they kicked up dirt and caused mischief. Some joined together in packs and could be seen around noon one day marking the sides of the newly appointed buildings, mostly the academy and the Hokage tower, before later the same day being passed as they were removing the same markings. Lady Tsunade may have been busy with leading the reconstruction of a broken and vulnerable village, and Shizune may have been busy caring for a broken and vulnerable leader, but there were still adults watching and waiting to scold those youngsters who stepped out of line.

The academy had been re-opened and was already in session, much to the relief of many parents and even those without children, since many troublemakers now were forced off the streets and into an educated setting. The people continued to work and to build and to _live_, and from it they seemed to grow closer, like a giant land of puzzle pieces strewn over the land finally stitching itself together. Jobs were given and missions were taken and children were educated.

All in all, Konohagakure was a living, breathing entity that never seemed to sleep, or rest, or even hesitate to _stop _growing. Even when the people laid their heads down to rest at night, preparing their hardened bodies to wake early and repeat the same grueling but rewarding construction the following day, the village itself seemed to work on into the night, rising, strengthening, promising the world it would come back bigger and better and stronger than it ever had.

And yet, even with all of its growth and the blooming camaraderie amongst citizens, Konoha _was_ in a vulnerable position. A very vulnerable position. Other villages had not wasted the opportunity to kick a horse while it was down, and even with the Kazekage's added backup forces from Suna, Konoha had taken several major hits that if anything else had set them even further back. As was expected of invasions and attacks in a time of weakness, lives had been lost and morale had taken the hit almost as if it was a tangible force. But Konoha wasn't known as one of the strongest hidden villages for nothing, and most certainly wouldn't bow or submit to the pressure of bullies who picked on the weak. Especially now that one of the strongest generations of ninja ever to grace the village hidden in the leaves had all at the very least achieved the rank of Jounin.

Even Uzumaki Naruto, who at the very _gentle _insistence of a pair of hardened feminine fists attached to a lovely, kind woman with pink hair and the additional _innocent _taunts of one grey haired team leader had finally gotten his butt in gear and taken the tests and completed the trials that legally stated that he was _finally not a Genin anymore._ Now a happily arrogant Jounin and arguably the strongest ninja in the entire hidden village system, Naruto was amongst the busiest ninja in Konoha. It was a rare thing to ever see the beacon of gold and sapphire within the village, let alone sitting still and doing anything ordinary like eating out, or hanging with friends, or even training. His talents were vital to keeping the peace with other nations, and frequent missions detailing him outside of the village were given and taken. In fact, it had been well over a month since the last time his teammates had seen hide nor hair from the Kyuubi container, and even longer since anyone else from his generation had heard his distinct voice.

In three days, it would be exactly three months since last she saw him.

"Hinata-sama!" a voice called after her, though it didn't sound urgent. Violet tresses shifting, she turned slightly to watch with pupil-less lavender eyes as her cousin strode towards her. Smiling kindly, she hadn't seen _him_ in weeks, she dipped into a polite bow even though she knew he wouldn't appreciate it. And true to her thoughts, when she straightened back to her full height there was a scowl marring Hyūga Neji's pristine features, his lips twisted and his sallow eyes glaring. His deep brunette mane was as tidy and perfect as always, even if his pallid uniform was wrinkled and covered in dirt and scuff marks—clearly he'd been training, most likely with Lee. Hyūga Hinata took a flickering moment to wonder _how he did that _before he was right in front of her, still scowling even as he dipped into an appropriate bow. She continued to smile at him though her expression became one enough to mirror his look of disapproval. This was an argument as old as time between the cousins, and she knew better than to bring it up in words lest they argue about it all day. He hated when she bowed to him because according to him, it wasn't right for someone of the main family to bow to someone from the branch family. On the other hand, Hinata thought it was polite to bow in greeting to _anyone_ she thought was a superior to her, and Neji was more than qualified.

They'd had a rocky relationship to start, of course, with him growing up and finding his own way with the help of his teammates and most notably one blonde haired bumbling fool of a ninja, who hadn't seemed to know his left from his right but had somehow been able to teach Neji something as profound as the uncertainty of fate and how it was all too easy to make his own. Of course, that had been after Neji had fought Hinata and broken her wrist, swiftly moving to actually _kill_ her in a mere qualification round of the Chuunin exams only to be stopped by four Jounins. Hinata had long since forgiven him and was more than happy to joke about the encounter, though she knew better than to do so since one tall, quiet and brooding ANBU Captain didn't quite feel the same way and had taken it upon himself to live a life trying to make up for it. No matter how many times Hinata told him it was enough, that his friendship was something she valued on a level of blood, he still couldn't seem to forgive himself.

"Neji-nii-san." Hinata greeted him with unveiled joy, beaming up at him much like a very young sibling might welcome their Aniki. It was not exaggerated to say that Hyūga Neji was one of the people Hinata admired most in the world, and seeing his obvious good health made her brighten like a sunrise.

"How was your training?" she wondered, shifting her hold on the basket of fruits she was carrying. Neji surveyed the goods with a knowing look, managing to shake his head only once in exasperation. As the heir of the clan, Hinata had several personal assistants who were in charge of doing all of the household chores that otherwise might've fallen to Hinata. That would most certainly include shopping. She also had a bodyguard, one Ko Hyūga, who was supposed to accompany her almost everywhere she went. As Hinata was currently by herself in the middle of one of the busiest streets of Konoha's shopping districts, Neji would be a fool to assume anything other than that she'd lost K o, too. The stubborn little heiress had never been fond of sitting by like a piece of furniture and had been known to sneak away from her bodyguard whenever she could.

"Passable. Lee is currently on his thirteenth lap around Konoha." He didn't smile, but his eyes held a familiar gleam of amusement that had Hinata shaking her head, a small laugh slipping through her lips.

"Lee-san's determination is as always, very admirable." She returned, gesturing with a turn of her neck for him to walk with her. Neji fell into her stride with ease, keeping quiet as she continued to shop for groceries. Without a word, he slipped his hand under the handle of her basket and removed it from her grasp, securing it on his left arm so it didn't hang between them. She cast him a knowing look but he simply stared at her, expressionless. Neji was a gentleman, through and through, and never ceased to be the essence of polite to her. Sometimes it grated on her nerves, because she felt like he was treating her like a spoiled child. Like a princess. But then she reminded herself that this was just the way Neji _was_, overprotective and overbearing, but a sweetheart all the same. Though he'd go paler than Sai to hear it.

He stayed with her for the entirety of her shopping, not saying much but not needing to. She paid generously for the items she needed and graciously spoke with the people who asked her about her family and her life. Hinata was easily identifiable what with her strangely lavender eyes as opposed to the popular pale Hyūga white, and even more telling of her identity, the ominous presence of one tall brunette Jounin that never seemed to be apart from her for long. Hinata would never realize it being that she was too shy and introverted and plain insecure to see it, but Neji's presence served as more than just a buffer between the mistreatment and abuse that sometimes befell the heiress simply because she was an heiress, but also put a stop to many curious suitors. Just thinking of the reaction he might get if he told her that was a small part of the reason Hiashi-sama encouraged his presence around the heiress made Neji want to smirk. She'd be all blushing cheeks and stuttered denials.

Neji cared deeply for his cousin and was not unaware of just how protective he had become of the little lady. She had bloomed into quite the woman and he'd been quick to notice that apparently the curves she tried so hard to hide under baggy clothes only served to intensify the male population's curiosity about her. He could have sweat-dropped at the injustice of it all, if he was a lesser man. Of course the exact action of trying to become more invisible would only serve as a spotlight upon poor Hinata, not that she'd ever know it. Neji glanced over her head and met the _curious_ gaze of one such suitor who instantly froze in his gazing when met with a steely, unblinking pair of white eyes. Not breaking stride, Neji's eyelid twitched once and it was enough for the man to abruptly decide he had business on the other side of the market. Hinata glanced up at him curiously, but seemed unaware of what had transpired and so she only smiled when he met her gaze again.

They were fast approaching the Hokage tower and Neji remembered that he was due for a mission statement in just under a half hour. Hinata had bags hanging from her right arm and turned to gesture for him to hand over her basket, though he did nothing of the sort. She glanced up at him and frowned, settling her weight on one generously curved hip.

"Neji-nii-san, I can take it from here. Lady Tsunade has a mission for you today, right?" He wasn't surprised that she knew that, not since Hinata seemed to always know where he was and what he was doing. He supposed it was her way of watching over him, quite like his way of watching her with his ability to find her anywhere in the village within seconds so that he could spend time with her.

Nodding his head, he reached forward to take the bags from her other arm, but she shrugged them away, frowning even more at him. She opened her mouth to say more, but he stopped her with a subtle twitch of his neck.

"I will see you home, Hinata-sama."

"Neji-nii-san." He didn't respond, though he didn't try to grab for her bags again either. He knew that sometimes she could be as stubborn as a mule, but if he were the kind of person who succumbed to tenacity then he never would've survived on a team with Tenten. Sighing, Hinata finally relented and turned in the direction of the Hyūga estates, brushing her hair off her neck carelessly. The wind was picking up and it was having a field day with her unbound waist-length tresses, blowing them around into her face and knotting them at the ends. Though some of his hair was unbound, it somehow never seemed to get knotted quite like Hinata's did. He ignored her as she fought to control her violet mane, smirking as her fingers got tangled and caught in a section that caused her to hiss. This was the side of Hinata that Neji found he liked most; the one where she was completely carefree and didn't seem to realize anyone was looking at her. If Hiashi-sama had been present to see his heiress fussing with her hair and muttering under her breath like a child, his face would've quickly bypassed the red stage and hurried on to a color closer to Hinata's hair. She finally untangled the knot only to find more along the way, so she sighed and gave up, blowing air sassily up at her princess-cut bangs in frustration. She flicked her gaze over to his smirking face and sighed again, shaking her head.

This was Hinata Hyūga, carefree, relaxed, and adorable. She was completely unaware of the looks people were sending her and she didn't seem to realize how childish her ministrations seemed to make her look. And yet Neji knew that even if she looked quite the pre-teen at the moment, should someone choose to attack in an instant she'd turn from a mewling kitten to fearless wildcat, strong and swift and sure. She worked harder than almost anyone he knew, though Rock Lee was an animal his own when it came to hard work.

The sun was high in the sky by the time they made it back to the Hyūga estates, telling them it was around noon and that they'd returned just in time for the lunch that would already be made, though Neji had other matters to attend to. The Hyūga estate looked as foreboding as it was internally: with stark plainly paneled walls and no visibility within the grounds, unless of course one's Byakugan was activated. It was tall and imposing and had a single tree in the middle of the compound that could be seen from every angle. As they stopped before the front gates, they turned to one another and Neji finally handed over her basket of fruits, opening his mouth to chastise her for going to the market alone when suddenly the gates flew open and a very flustered looking Ko glared out at them.

"_Hinata-sama,_" he breathed in relief, even going so far as to wipe an invisible trail of sweat from his forehead. "I just returned to the estate and found you missing! When I asked Ami-san where you were, do you know what she said?" it was obvious that each of them knew exactly what Hinata's personal assistant had said, though they were wise enough to keep quiet as a steaming Ko continued.

"She said, 'wasn't she with _you_?'" and here Ko crossed his arms over his chest, sighing as he suddenly seemed to notice that Neji was with her. Hinata was frowning, not wanting to make Ko mad but not happy about getting him into trouble either.

"At least Neji-san was with you." He finally said, shrugging his muscled shoulders. He moved forward and took the bags and basket from Hinata's arms, thanking Neji for watching over her and waiting for the taller man to nod in acceptance before he shuffled Hinata into the compound, saying something about a summons.

"Ah, Neji-san, are you coming in for lunch?" Ko asked, concern coloring his brow. Though he wasn't much older than Neji, he was a caretaker down to his bones and looked after Hinata as if she were his own sister. If anything, Neji could appreciate that.

"I have been summoned." He said instead, lifting a hand to announce his leave. He turned to head towards the tower, already wondering what his mission would entail and where he'd be sent off to. Just as he was about to leap onto the nearest roof to ensure a quicker trail to the Hokage tower, he heard the shuffling of feet behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Hinata peeking past the gate at him, whispering his name. He turned to regard her, tilting his head when he saw her blush slightly.

"Will you let me know when you leave? I'd like to continue training until you do…if that's okay." Instantly Neji nodded his head before lifting his hand to wave once more, and then he was gone. She smiled, turning back to a frowning Ko to apologize for running off, though they both were more than aware that she would do it again. And again. But her mood couldn't be darkened, not when she had the possibility of another training session with her nii-san planned. She wasn't sure exactly how long ago it had started, but she could clearly remember the first sparring session and how battered she'd become because of it. Neji had found her training by herself on the training grounds, alone because missions had momentarily taken her team from her and she'd only just returned from her own mission. After asking her why she'd train alone and receiving an unsatisfactory answer of _I didn't want to bother anyone_, he'd swiftly attacked her and from then on they'd taken to being sparring partners.

Neji was so obviously more skilled than her that the majority of the time she returned home with bruises and soreness and a headache, but a smile nonetheless. Because she was _learning_. It was no secret that Neji was a prodigy and now that she'd experienced it personally she was even more in awe of his talents. It was no wonder he'd made ANBU Captain; his skills were swift and deadly and, quite frankly, terrifying. But sparring against him, though painful, was always a lesson and she never came out of a fight with him without useful knowledge. He made her quicker, stronger, and more aware of her surroundings. It was a well-known fact throughout the clan that even though Neji was the strongest, the fastest, and all around the _best_, Hinata Hyūga had one trump card: her visual range.

There were rumors that she could stand in the center of the village and see everything, from the Hokage pacing in her office to the ninja approaching the front gates. Outstanding rumors or not, her range was something no one could touch and she was justly proud of it, since she'd spent years honing it. Years in which she'd stretched her vision so far she'd had headaches for weeks; years in which she'd focused that stretched vision on items so tiny it was akin to trying to read fine print without a light source. But as most everything that came with practice, she'd gotten better at it, so much so that it no longer hurt for her to scan out and see even the smallest of creatures kilometers out. Because of her talent, she'd become one of the most valuable trackers in the entire village, working on par with Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru with their naturally amazing tracking senses, and Abarame Shino and his sensitive bugs. In fact, her squad was renowned for their tracking abilities and were often specifically chosen for important retrieval missions.

But Hyūga techniques were not specialized for long-distance fighting, quite the opposite, in fact. So even though she could see enemy nin miles before they were upon her, she had to make sure that she was prepared for them. She could see everything they tried to do up close, but what good was seeing their moves if she was too slow to block them? That was where Neji's training came in to play. He was training her harshly, with grueling spars and no mercy taijutsu. It was unspoken but she seemed to understand that he wanted to get her to the point where she would be able to blend right into his ANBU squad. It was a tall expectation, for sure, but if Neji-nii-san had enough faith in her to get there, then how could she not?

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**A/N**: Hello all, thanks for stopping by to check out my first multi-chapter story! I'm very nervous about this process but given that I've been punched in the gut with NaruHina feels, I've decided to put my thoughts and attempts at creativity out into the world. Please critique me to your heart's content and feel free to ~encourage~ more from me if you so desire it. Also now will be the official warning: this story's rating _might_ be changed to **M **much farther down the line. We'll see how I react to the events of much later chapters. : )


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto.

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Hyūga Hinata was exhausted, but having worked a full shift and then two extra hours of covering someone else's would do that to a person. She couldn't remember the last time she'd sat down or even had enough time to take a deep breath, but she liked the way being a medic-nin kept you on your toes and constantly challenged you. Not to mention the added knowledge and the added ability to be able to further help her squad now that she knew the ropes of medical jutsu. She was no Tsunade, or Haruno Sakura, for that matter, but she was used to being overshadowed by prodigies and had never had a problem working under them. She lived with Neji, worked constantly with Sakura, had seen the way Yamanaka Ino could interrogate, and she knew first hand with each of them that they each had their specific prodigious talents. She didn't even have to mention Naruto and all his powerful idiosyncrasies, because that was a given.

But Hinata was good enough to save lives and every now and again impress Sakura with how quickly she picked things up and succeeded, mostly due to her amazing manipulation of chakra and her ability to see it and know it, thanks in large part to her Kekkei Genkai. She had a special talent in sealing techniques but it was nothing to brag or boast about, to be true. She was simply another dedicated med-nin of Konoha, now dedicated mostly to those who injured themselves on missions or around the border, though she took turns switching between this gig and the one that allowed med-nin to walk around the village offering immediate aid to those with heat exhaustion or dehydration or construction accidents as they worked to rebuild Konoha. She didn't really have a preference between the two but the added benefit of being outside in the cool breeze of Konoha's seemingly perfect weather was always a bonus, especially when the alternative was the hospital's constant smells of anesthetic, chakra exhaustion and the dying.

"Hinata! Room 312, immediately!" a fellow medic demanded as she approached at a jog, gesturing for Hinata to follow. Instantly Hinata was with her, following her until they came to a room already bustling with personnel. The nurse beside her briefed them without pause, informing of a wounded ANBU squadron that had been ambushed. Hinata had a split second of fear for Neji before she entered the room and saw that it was not his squadron, before she noted that Sakura was already in the corner, hair tied up in a tail and hands glowing green. She was working on the worst of them, a young man who had almost been cut clean in half by a blade claimed to be bigger than he was, not to mention his fractured cheekbone, broken jaw, and broken tibia.

The patient Hinata immediately came to heal had two broken arms and internal bleeding from a ruptured kidney. Her hands glowed a shade reminiscent of Sakura's own eyes and she quickly set to work on the internal healing, keeping her Byakugan activated so as to better understand what she was working with. She could feel the edges of her chakra pulling the pieces together, working as invisible sutures, but the process was long drawn and draining and she had already been at the hospital for more than she was officially supposed to have been, which would certainly result in a scolding from their Lady Hokage should Sakura choose to tell her, which she wouldn't—it was clear that Sakura was guilty of the same misdemeanor just from the bags under her eyes and the levels of her finely tuned chakra. It was all too easy to tell when people like Hinata and Sakura were abusing themselves work-wise, because they were so good at chakra control that any source of it low enough to be dangerous meant they weren't taking proper care of themselves. Punishment enough was the certainty that both Neji-nii-san and Naruto-kun would without a doubt be chastising their respective teammates for their carelessness.

It took hours just to get the internal organ to stop bleeding. Her patient had been unconscious the moment she came into the room and she was thankful for it, since any movement of his arms would've been detrimental to her healing and yet she didn't have the time to tend to them just yet. She could hear Sakura grumbling curses to her patient albeit under her breath, threatening his life if he didn't just _live_, which at any other time would've made Hinata laugh if she didn't think the action would result in her lying unconscious on the tile.

Hours and way too much chakra spent later, Hinata finally felt the last of her healing chakra withdraw back into her as she straightened. She looked over her patient with a critical but weary eye, suddenly realizing that it was silent in the room. Where had everyone gone? Just a second ago the room had been filled to bursting, hadn't it? She turned to look over her shoulder and after a brief dizzy spell caused by her dwindling supply of chakra, she noticed that Sakura was gone too, though the pinkette's patient was lying still under a suit of bandages, the beeping of a heart monitor promising life. Hearing something in the doorway, Hinata looked up to see Sakura approaching, looking exactly how Hinata felt, but with a small smile still etched on her face.

"You did well, Hinata. Your patient has stabilized. I'm going to double-check his kidney real quick," she informed before resting her hands just above the injury, her face screwing up into one of concentration. Hinata swayed where she was standing and waited for Sakura to give her the go-ahead. Sakura straightened, cracking her back at the same time, and smiled at Hinata.

"Well done. I've sent for someone who actually obeyed the one-shift-per-medic rule to heal Kimchi-san's arms, since you and I are dangerously low on chakra. Now I'll be the pot and you can be the kettle: this behavior is unacceptable and dangerous. No more of this, understood?" Sakura smiled once more and accepted Hinata's nod.

"Hai, Sakura-san. You did well today." She added, glancing back at the team leader in sympathy. When she looked back to the pinkette, the other woman was shaking her head.

"Fool," she whispered, bringing her verdant eyes back to pale lavender ones. "He should've seen the ambush coming, especially since they were in Mist's territory. I don't know what Tsunade-shishou was thinking sending them over there." Then she sighed, as if the world and all its problems had been trying to settle over her but she refused to let them, turning towards the door with Hinata close behind. The violet clad woman held back a yawn as she gently shut the door behind her, feeling her lungs expand around a huge sigh for the first time all night. After checking the clock and noting that her half-shift was now officially past over, she bowed her head politely and wished Sakura a good night.

"Eat something before you go to sleep, Hinata." Sakura called out after her, and without turning Hinata knew that her hands would be fisted on her hips, a stern expression on her face.

"Hai, Sakura-san!" she called out with a raised hand, still not turning. She didn't want to cause the dizziness to return again, and it seemed even slow turns made her a bit woozy. She reached a hand over her body to rub her arm up and down in a soothing motion, wishing she had the energy to massage the muscles there. After writing her last reports and filing them away, she walked out into the cold night and was glad for her lavender jacket to shield her from the cold air. Sometimes after her shifts she'd randomly find Neji waiting outside, leaning against the building as if he was supposed to be there. He liked to walk her home at night, worrying over her health and scolding her for her carelessness the entire way back to the compound. If she had ever wanted for an older brother when she was a child, she needn't do so anymore.

Tonight, however, she knew he would not be there because he was on a mission with his squad, though she knew not where or why or when he was due to return. All she knew was that they hadn't had time for any sparring sessions like she'd hoped they would—he'd had to leave the same night he was given the mission. Carefully covering her mouth around a yawn, she shuffled her feet through the dirt road and wondered what she would eat before she went to sleep. She'd need to be rejuvenated for the next day since she had a training session scheduled with Kiba and Shino. Kurenai was still busy taking care of her little girl who looked curiously the perfect mix of the woman and her deceased lover. Hinata often dropped by to play with the child, finding she was actually quite happy to babysit and even sleep over should Kurenai need some 'quality time' as she liked to call it. Chewing on her lip, Hinata decided after training she'd drop by and pay Ame-chan a quick visit.

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She was going to have to talk to Neji about speed consistency. She ducked low as three shuriken sped through the air her head had just been occupying, breathing in as she shot forward without leaving time for Kiba to fix his stance. Her hands were quick and deadly—just one hit and he could be incapacitated. But Kiba and Shino knew her better than anyone and her moves almost had a rhythm one could trace once she fell into it. He rolled away from her, escaping her dangerous digits just as Shino's bugs crowded around him, blocking him from sight like a cloud of smoke. Not having the time to see if Kiba could attack her from behind, Hinata pushed the offending kick away from her, watching Shino spin with the momentum of the toss only to bring his foot all the way around to swipe under her feet. She leapt into the air, somersaulting and crashing the back of her foot down on his head.

He threw up an arm and deflected her kick with too much ease, she thought as she stumbled back, crossing her arms in front of her face as he came at her with a deadly taijutsu combination of punches and kicks. It was a blend she'd never seen from him before, making it that much harder to block and deflect. Kiba cursed behind her but sounded too close for comfort, so without further thought she latched on to Shino's next punch and managed to grasp his wrist in her delicate hands. That was all she needed.

Within a second his wrist was useless, the pain from shutting down the chakra centers there the equivalent to her breaking those bones, though he made no sound. Her heart clenched but she told herself this was how it had to be, this was how _she_ had to be if she wanted to keep up with her rapidly strengthening teammates. She would _not _be left behind. She had to prove to them that she was strong and that she could keep up with them. He leapt away, his dark glasses flashing in the sunlight, his hand dangling lifelessly at his side. That single moment of distraction was all Kiba needed to reinsert himself into the spar, and he took it with a sharp-nailed jab into her side, breaking skin. She couldn't help the soft sound of pain as her body folded around the blow, but she quickly used his momentum against him and in an instant he, too, was without the use of one of his arms. He, however, had been close enough for her to shut down an entire arm, rather than just a hand, as she had with Shino.

Buzzing sounded in her ear and she knew she could only hear it because Shino allowed it, and so she became as still as the trunks of the trees around them, her hair mirroring the movement of the canopies in the wind. She concentrated her chakra just under the surface of her skin and then all at once emitted a tiny blast from every pore, listening and hearing nothing, though her nose told her otherwise. There was the faintest smell of charred extract in the air and she knew that the bugs too tiny for even her eyes to see that had landed on her skin had been burnt away. She would have to apologize later to Shino for that one, though he should have known better than to underestimate her mind in battle-mode.

She looked over to see Kiba in the midst of a giant Getsuga and had a split second to realize that Akamaru was not with him, which meant…and sure enough the moment she flattened herself to the ground a massive white dog flew overhead, saliva dripping from open jowls. He quickly turned back to her, growling like a fiend, and charged before leaping into his own Getsuga. Already in mid-spin, Hinata displayed a perfect Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven and easily deflected the Getsuga, which Akamaru brilliantly shifted from a failed move to a swift attack towards a defenseless Shino. Slowing to a stop from her spin, Hinata looked up in time to see Shino's clone pop after being assaulted by Akamaru, which in turn disoriented the big animal for a brief period. The dog leapt for the real Shino just as Kiba's fist came into contact with Hinata's cheek, sending her sprawling down into the ground. She pushed herself up and bounded a few feet away, her hands still in defensive position. As Shino and Kiba both sent an arsenal of kunai her way, their aim true to very vulnerable parts of her body, she found herself already spinning in another Revolving Heaven, listening as every blade was deflected and she remained untouched.

Without waiting for an opening to make her vulnerable, she pushed off from her spin and dove towards her two fighting teammates, and together all three of them began their own vicious sets of taijutsu, being that they were too close together for much else. The boys seemed to silently agree and turn against her, since hers were the most dangerous hands up close. She didn't mind, in fact, this was greatly improving her defenses by forcing her to continue to be offensive towards more than one foe, whilst remaining untouched by their damning fists. Shino landed a chop upon the top of her shoulder that hurt like hell, but his downswing left him within reach of her left hand and she wasted no time in disabling the entire arm of which his already useless hand belonged. She spun to attempt the same on Kiba and subsequently underestimated Shino's vivacity—a dire mistake.

Before she could turn back to him, her Byakugan eyes widened and her mouth opened around the pain of a fist pounding into her stomach, sending her flying. The wind was instantly knocked out of her, as she rolled, rolled, rolled and crashed into the trunk of a tree, her spine feeling as though it'd snapped in half. She tried to regain her breath and not panic, knowing what had happened to her and dealing with not being _able to breathe_ two entirely different matters. When she finally sucked in some air, she looked up to see Shino pulling Kiba up off the ground and Akamaru trotting over to her, tongue lolling out. Kiba was bleeding from the leg and had a cut across his cheek but looked relatively unscathed. Shino looked completely untouched but then again it was always hard to tell with him since he was so completely covered. She was absolutely positive she'd need to fix that arm of his, though she wasn't sure yet if that was the least of his worries. As Akamaru came over and licked her face in apology for any wrongdoing he might've done to her, Hinata reached up and scratched the scruffy fur of his neck. Doing a quick self-examination from the ground she laid on, Hinata guessed that she had a broken rib or two, a few cuts, and several bruises. Sighing, she accepted that she'd still lost this round, though there was never really a distinct loser or victor.

"Hinata-chaaaaan!" Kiba called as he and Shino walked over to her. The dog lover was obviously favoring his right leg and Shino was equally obvious about his arm being uncomfortable, though neither of them looked upset. Quite the opposite, actually.

"That was a decent spar, ne?" Kiba questioned as they came up beside her, reaching down to pet his massive dog and congratulating him on an excellently delivered Getsuga. Shino reached down and waited for Hinata to grasp his outstretched hand, pulling her up to her feet when their hands came together. She dusted herself off before hissing at the pain it caused, one hand reaching up to grasp the area that ailed her. Kiba looked her over, concerned, not wanting to touch her.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Her ribs." Shino answered, not looking away from her. She smiled sheepishly up at him, nodding her head.

"That was a powerful punch, Shino-kun." She congratulated him, smiling even when every breath felt like a blade between her ribs. Kiba seemed to finally understand and pushed at Shino's shoulder angrily, growling between his elongated teeth.

"Shino you idiot! You broke some of her ribs!"

"Kiba." Shino warned, not looking at him. Instead, he nodded to her injury and without much effort grunted, "Heal it." She nodded her head, her eyes scrunching as she smiled. She felt exhilarated and very happy to have been able to spar with them after so long. Usually uncomfortable around everyone, her boys always made her feel relaxed and at home, even when they were beating the snot out of her. They were a very close-knit team, and Hinata thanked her lucky stars day in and day out that she'd been blessed with them. She could remember when she'd been placed with them, being so worried because she was used to training in the back of all the girls whereas now she was the only girl, not to mention that she'd have to grow up with these two boys around all the time. But she had to admit, growing up with two boys around had done wonders for her confidence, even if many people couldn't tell. She was able to change in front of them and joke with them and be apart of their lives like a little sister, and they treated her with respect and the over-protectiveness she'd come to expect from Neji.

She wondered if they were even aware that she didn't need such protection. It was a frustrating but logical situation she often felt from the clan's perspective: they suffocated her with personal assistants and even a bodyguard when she was already a highly skilled Jounin and medic. She knew they did so because she was an heiress, and a frail looking one at that, but it still hurt and fueled the small voice in her head that whispered _weak_. Kiba and Neji did the same thing, though they had much purer intentions she was sure. Even Shino to some extent exuded a protective air when around her; though he was most forthcoming about her need to branch out and do her own thing, walk her own path. Sometimes she thought it was more for their sakes than hers, if she was being completely honest. The thought made her smile as she lifted her hands to heal her broken ribs, finding three that had cracked. What a powerful punch that had been! She'd have to remember to steer clear of Shino's left hand.

"Ah, well." Kiba sighed, stretching with his hands tied behind his head, a loud groan escaping him as his back realigned with a few cracks. "We should get something to eat!"

"Hinata?" Shino asked, given that it was her turn to pick the cuisine. Between the three of them, they had very different tastes for food. Shino preferred salads and any form of vegetables, Kiba preferred anything meaty or that included beef jerky, and Hinata loved zenzai and delighted in cinnamon rolls. Obviously they had trouble agreeing when it came to meals, though Hinata was okay with everything though Shino never let her settle and Kiba often felt bad for always choosing things that seemed to fill her up so quickly. Eventually an exasperated Kurenai had suggested they take turns choosing, and from that point on they always had. Hinata had learned, however, the few places that they could all agree on, and amongst them was a place she embarrassingly chose often for hope of seeing a certain someone.

Shyly, because she knew how they felt about her crush on a certain Kyuubi container, Hinata looked up through her lashes and posed, "Ichiraku?" in a small, uncertain voice. Surprisingly, Kiba was quick to shrug and agree. Shino nodded his head once and just like that, it was decided. Before any of them made to move, Hinata ushered them close and healed Kiba's leg and a hidden laceration on Shino's back that had come from a kunai she'd thrown his way. She also opened their blocked chakra channels and grinned sheepishly when they stretched their arms with obvious relief. Finally, after all the healing was finished, they turned and headed towards Naruto's favorite restaurant, with Kiba's endless chatter keeping them occupied.

Usually it took many minutes of teasing and attempts to understand _what_ she saw in that blonde-haired idiot before Kiba would let her be, cheeks blazing and hands shaking. Shino always stayed silent but seemed interested in the conversation, as if he didn't want to look like an idiot like Kiba did, but was equally as interested in an answer. As they started walking, Kiba slightly taller on her right and Shino towering over her on her left, they all listened as Kiba jumped into a detailed summary of the night before where he had, in his words, scored some tail.

* * *

When they got to Ichiraku Ramen, the place was crowded but there was no sign of one Uzumaki Naruto. Hinata felt mild disappointment but also was able to relax a bit more given that she wouldn't have to worry about being in his presence. Shino, having seen her shoulders wilt and her frame relax, glanced over her head at a smirking Kiba, who in turn shook his head. They were seated rather quickly for how crowded the place was, and within the first moment of silence after ordering, Kiba turned to Hinata and said, "So."

"Kiba-kun?" she posed, unsure of why he was looking at her like that. She looked back at Shino to see him giving her the same look but in his own way, which really made her curious. She knew that had she been anyone else she wouldn't have been able to tell a difference in Shino, but because she knew him better than anyone besides Kiba, she could distinguish his minimal facial expressions. She quite likened it to the way Naruto and Sakura had been able to read their brooding Uchiha teammate when they were Genin.

"Bummed that Naruto-baka isn't here?" Kiba continued, slurping his drink in a way she was sure he thought was smooth, but really just looked sloppy. She almost laughed. She could hear the sigh Shino let out behind her, as if he was exasperated with Kiba's lack of tact before she felt his knee nudge her to answer.

"I-I'm sad I don't get to see him, sure. But he's probably off on an important mission, and I know he'd be h-happy with that. So I'm happy." She explained, taking a delicate sip of her water in an attempt to distract them from her slight stuttering. She had gotten much better than when she was young and stuttered in every conversation; terrified of the criticism and expectation of everyone she came across. She'd gained enough confidence to hold her own in a fight and she'd realized long ago that if she could do that much, she could strengthen herself in everyday social matters, too. It'd taken even longer than her physical training to actually admit to herself that she was proud of herself, proud enough to speak with certainty about things she'd never been certain _of_. It seemed, now, the only person who could make her stutter—whether just as the topic of conversation or as the point of focus before her—was Uzumaki Naruto. Her teammates had fast caught on to that and had for years relentlessly been hassling her about it. She knew they were just curious, but sometimes it was hard to put into words just why Naruto made her so nervous. Mostly because she felt like a crazy person with the thoughts that bubbled to the surface when she thought of her golden-haired hero. How embarrassing it'd be for them to know her most personal thoughts on the matter.

"Uh-huh." Kiba hummed, brow rising. He glanced at Shino and at the same moment the bug man opened his mouth to speak. Surprised, Hinata turned fully to face him, wondering what he was going to add to the conversation.

"I hope this time they don't burn my ramen." He said, utterly serious. Hinata breathed an unexpected laugh, smiling at him with apparent affection as she heard something in Kiba's direction that sounded suspiciously like his head dropping onto the counter. When she looked back over to him she found that that was exactly what had happened, and that he was glaring at Shino with eyes that promised retribution. Shino merely took a dainty sip of his lemonade through a bendy straw.

"Anyways," Kiba cleared his throat, locking his animalistic eyes back onto Hinata with determination anew. She wondered if he was going to be more forward because he felt he was in this alone now that Shino was clearly more taken with the status of his food.

"Hinata just make this easy on us, 'kay? What is it you see in that baka? It can't be his looks." At that moment their food arrived before them and Hinata had never been more thankful for a distraction in her life. Kiba was never anything but forward when he was curious, but this was a whole new level of forward even he had never touched before. She listened as he slurped his ramen and played with her chopsticks, pushing her noodles around listlessly for a second before setting them down on the table, suddenly so nervous she didn't want to eat. Though they'd only been there for a few minutes, they'd come at a time not many people chose to eat and so the place had cleared out until there were only a couple people besides them within the restaurant. Hinata was glad for that, too.

"Well," she whispered, not able to look into either Kiba's eyes or Shino's glasses for fear of fainting. She stared into her ramen bowl, her lips quivering in anxiety. They parted around the beginning of a long winded explanation that would probably shine a light on many aspects of herself she didn't necessarily _want_ known, but she was willing to do so if it would put her boys at ease.

"About Naruto-kun, it's just that he's—"

"What about Naruto?" a feminine voice interrupted, loud and lively and soon after followed by someone heaving a life-suffering sigh. Hinata turned, red as a tomato to see Yamanaka Ino in all her beauty followed closely by one Nara Shikamaru. Hinata waited for the third member of their team but it seemed that they were alone for the moment as they slid into two open booths next to Shino. Kiba glared at Ino as if he could kill her on the spot, obviously ruffled that she'd ruined any chance of him getting such long-awaited answers. Hinata felt her temperature was much higher than it was healthily supposed to be, but remained silent, embarrassed at having been caught with Naruto's name in her mouth. Shino turned to the two newcomers and inclined his head, though even that gesture seemed a little icy. Was he upset for the same reason as Kiba? _Honestly_, Hinata mentally sighed.

"We were just _saying_ that we haven't seen that moron in a while." Kiba saved, his voice as rough as gravel. A whining noise came from around the corner and without blinking or changing expression Kiba grabbed a small handful of his ramen and tossed it around the corner behind him, smooth as silver. The sounds of something decidedly large devouring something decidedly delicious could be heard around the corner, and from the suspicious look the owner cast Kiba's way it wasn't a stretch to guess he was on to Akamaru's presence.

"Well _obviously_," Ino said, shaking out her long tail of hair before adjusting the bit that hung in front of her eye. Behind her, Hinata could see Shikamaru sleeping on his crossed arms on the counter, not even trying to hide his snores. Ino casually elbowed him in the side as she lifted her arms to stretch, puffing out her chest before she casting a disdainful look in Kiba's direction.

"He's a village hero, sure, but he's also one of the strongest ninja we've got. Why wouldn't Tsunade use him on the big boy missions? Those always take forever. Plus, Sakura has been put on full hospital duty, and Kakashi-sensei is _in_ the hospital—we'll see how long that actually lasts—which means his team is out of commission for the time being. So of course we haven't seen him, he's off being bigger and badder than all of us, go figure."

"You save _one_ village," Kiba muttered sarcastically, shaking his head. He dipped back into his ramen and started eating with a renewed hunger, ignoring the sudden influx of whines from around the corner. Hinata caught Ino's eye and smiled knowingly, shaking her head even as Ino's turquoise eye narrowed on her, too knowing for the violet's own good.

"So, Hina-chan, what have you been up to in Naruto's absence? Forehead tells me you're doing great work at the hospital."

"Oh," Hinata gasped, unsure how to respond to the compliment. She blushed, nodding her head once in acceptance and hoping she didn't look too awkward. "I've been well, just training. What about you, Ino-san? I've also heard you're doing well in the hospital, though I haven't seen you. Are you on construction detail?"

"I had been, until that damn ambush happened. They managed to bring back a few of the attackers and I've been playing 20 questions with them down in the dungeons for the past week. They're surprisingly…resistant." She shrugged, as if she hadn't just subconsciously admitted to mentally interrogating and torturing several S-class shinobi underground. Hinata really had to admire Ino's confidence though she couldn't help but worry for the state of her sanity in the long run.

"But no one can escape this ingrained talent of being a know-it-all." She concluded, tapping her temple twice with her pointer and middle finger. Her food arrived in front of her but she slid it towards Shikamaru with her elbow, not even looking to see if he was awake to receive it. He hadn't been, but once it touched his sleeve he sat up and yawned into the bowl, snapping his chopsticks in one hand as the other smoothed over his spiked ponytail.

"I'm happy you're doing so well, truly, Ino-san. I could never do what you do," she admitted, smiling gently to let the blonde know she wasn't looking down on her actions in any way. In fact, she greatly admired the confidence one had to have in order to delve into the depths of other peoples' minds in order to pull up the truth. It certainly took a particular kind of ninja to skillfully do that without causing irreparable damage, though Hinata was not naïve enough to think such damage never occurred, or was ordered to occur.

Ino flapped a hand in the air as if being able to pull out memories from 30 years ago buried under mental barriers stronger than any known substance in the world was nothing. She leaned over Shino, uncaring that she was interfering with his meal, and whispered "Wanna know what I've heard about Naruto lately?" Hinata stared blankly at her, trying to will the blush away from her cheeks. Gradually, she allowed a single dip of her chin.

Ino sat back with a snide smile on her face, folding her arms over her chest in such a way that her smaller bust looked bigger and more in your face.

"I heard from one little birdie that he's been in Mist for weeks, infiltrating and getting information. But then another birdie squawked and said that's actually not true, because he was spotted in between Amegakure and Earth Country. And then a few other birdies told me my sources were shit, because he'd been meeting with Gaara in Suna not three days ago."

"If no one knows what the hell they're talking about, how is this in anyway useful?" Kiba muttered from his corner, suspiciously without his bowl of ramen even though Hinata knew for a fact neither the owner nor serving girl had taken it from him. Ino shot him a look that could very likely kill, shaking out her ponytail once more; always aware of how she looked. In response, Kiba seemed to focus on how her body moved with the motion before shaking himself.

"Oh you sweet, sweet simpleton. All those conflicting stories _mean_ that our dear sweet Naruto-kun is actually in none of those places." Kiba's expectant expression dropped, his scowl distracting no one from his twitching eyelid.

"Then where the fuck is he?" he growled, his sharp nails digging into the counter.

"Kiba-kun," Hinata whispered soothingly, and watched in satisfaction as he released the counter in favor of fisting his hands, even though his nails would surely pierce his skin. Reaching out, she settled one hand over his and waited for his muscles to relax, and only when they had did she bring her hand back to rest in her lap. Ino watched the exchange with bored eyes before continuing on to explain her reasoning.

"Well obviously those were all rumors spread by people who don't have a clue where he is. They believed them because most of those places are close together, so he could've been anywhere along those lines. But he's not." And she was certain, her arms still crossed over her chest as she flicked a gaze at a still slowly eating Shikamaru. Now that Hinata looked a little closer at the genius ninja, he looked incredibly tired, definitely close to exhaustion. Then she put two and two together and realized why exactly Ino had dragged him straight here, for ramen, which was almost entirely carbohydrates.

"Well then, smart one, where is he?" Kiba snapped, pulling a piece of beef jerky from his pocket to shred it with his teeth. A high keening noise came from around the corner and before Ino could continue Kiba growled, "Oh fine, here! Take it! You bloody thief." And he threw the beef jerky clear across the street, not even looking to watch the big white dog chase it down. Hinata heard Shino sigh again.

"My guess?" Ino said, raising her brows. She shrugged her dainty, unclothed shoulders. "He's here." At that, Shino cast a strange look at her, as did Kiba and Hinata both.

"H-here?" Hinata whispered, heart racing. Ino nodded her head, not caving to the strange looks she was getting.

"In fire country?" Kiba asked, disbelieving.

"In the village."

"And how do you figure?" Ino shrugged again.

"Just a feeling."

"That's how you know? Just a feeling?" Nodding, Ino watched as Kiba laughed in her face, turning away as if dismissing her completely. "That's a load of shit." He harrumphed, clicking his nails against the counter as he rested his chin in the palm of his other hand. Hinata shook her head, mulling over the possibilities. Carefully, she activated her Byakugan and began searching over the village, curious to see if Ino was right after all. She ignored the banter around her, pushing it to the background as her gaze looked over and through numerous estates and residences, stretching out so far she could even see the front gate.

"You can't know something like that based on a _feeling_."

"We're _ninja_ what the hell do you expect us to act upon in life or death situations?"

"Our skills."

"Our gut reactions, you moron."

"Bitch."

"Mutt." Ino hissed, smirking as he bared his teeth at her. At precisely the same time, both Shino and Shikamaru sighed. Hinata, still searching the parts of the village she could see suddenly froze, her body going rigid in its seat.

"She's right," Hinata whispered, focus entirely on the front gate.

"She's what?"

"I'm right?" Ino didn't waste a second disbelieving Hinata's activated Kekkei Genkai, and instantly stuck her tongue out at a glaring Kiba. She may have even childishly said 'I told you so' but Hinata was too busy drinking in the sight of Uzumaki Naruto as he strode into the village, looking clean and safe and content. Her heart swelled at the sight of him, filled to bursting with emotions that embarrassed her but made her feel strong. He was carrying a knapsack around him, and with a more focused look Hinata swallowed at the knowledge of what he was carrying.

"Where is he, Hinata?" Shino spoke up, turning to face her and studying the veins that lifted on her skin. She tilted her head to the side and bit her lip, worrying it a little before speaking.

"He's just now coming in."

"Holy shit, Hinata, can you see the front gates from here?" Ino chimed in, her expression stunned and thoroughly impressed. Hinata nodded her head; blush rising at the unspoken tribute to her visual range. Shikamaru made a grunting noise that seemed to be a compliment all its own.

Her tablemates all started to verbally wonder what kind of mission he'd been on, how he was doing, where all he'd been, if any of the rumors had truth, and when they'd be able to see him. Though Hinata was equally curious about all of those things, she had more pressing matters to focus on. She tuned them out and for once felt no guilt about doing so. She was much more concerned with what her Byakugan eyes were telling her, and what it would mean for the fate of Konoha.

For what kind of mission had Lady Tsunade sent Naruto on that would require him to return with a severed head in his pack?

* * *

**A/N**: Hello again, and thank you for those who provided reviews/criticism, I greatly appreciate it! I didn't want to put too much in my first chapter's A/N for ~reasons~ so I'll explain a bit more here :). This is totally my!verse, which means I will follow canon as much as I want to and I will stray away from it just as much as I want to, as well. Basically I'm writing this story for me, so whatever I want, goes :). So I've opened the possibility for Hinata to have sealing skills, which I might come into play in the future (we'll see!), and I've made her an efficient medic, because that was too delicious to ignore. I also just wanted to state here that I am _very_ inclined to writing details and details and details on top of details, because I need to know where a character is standing, what he or she is seeing/smelling/feeling/hearing, and I want the readers to be so immersed that they could actually _be_ that character. I like to think of it as my writing style: just highly descriptive. Some people like it, others abhor it. So this is me giving everyone a friendly heads up: every chapter will be immersed in details and description. Every single one. So if that bothers you or isn't your thing, totally fine with me, but you probably will get irritated with my writing. Also, as you have probably noticed, I did end up switching the rating of my story from **T** to **M **like I mentioned I might in the previous A/N, because I have a sailor's mouth and I like to lend it to my characters...and also because I'm picturing sweet lemony goodness between our leading lady and some lucky lad in the far-away future :). So again, if that ain't your thing, this is me forewarning you now! I think that's all I wanted to mention, so keep your questions and comments coming if you have them, and take care!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

Saving the village _again_, apparently.

Shortly thereafter discovering both Uzumaki Naruto and his luggage, so to speak, Hinata and the gang at Ichiraku had dispersed, going their separate ways to rest for the night. However, on her way back to the Hyūga estate with thoughts as heavy as one Akimichi patron resting in her mind, an ANBU ninja interrupted her whirling theories with a call to report to the Hokage for a mission. Surprising, Hinata recalled as she lifted her knuckles to knock on the door leading into the Hokage's office, since it was already past 9 o'clock at night.

"Enter." The Hokage's brusque voice snapped. Hinata shuffled in, bowing politely towards Lady Tsunade before stiffening completely. Not having had her Byakugan activated as well as being utterly distracted by the rare late-night summons, Hinata had failed to realize who the other patrons within the room were.

Hatake Kakashi. Nara Shikaku. And Uzumaki Naruto.

"Thanks for coming on such short notice, Hinata." Lady Tsunade said offhandedly, still glaring at the only other blonde in the room. And there was that same knapsack she'd seen Naruto enter the village with perched precariously on the edge of the Hokage's own desk, though, thankfully, it was still covered.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Tsunade blithely hissed, her fists clenching on the arms of her chair before the material snapped off in her grip. She was unfazed, tossing the scraps over to the corner of the room where an unruffled Shizune and Tonton smoothly moved to gather them up and dispose of them.

"I was _thinking_ of protecting everyone!" Naruto shouted back, crossing his lean arms over his equally lean chest, the material of his orange and black jacket stretching to accommodate his wide shoulders. Hinata felt heat rise into her cheeks and prayed no one could tell in the darkness of the poorly lit room. Hatake Kakashi came to stand next to her, hands in his pockets as his one visible eye crinkled to accomodate a welcoming grin.

"Hello Hinata-chan." His greeting was jovial and as composed as Shizune's expression, but Hinata could sense a stirring in his chakra that bespoke of hidden feelings of a more serious variety. She smiled up at him, dipping her head in a greeting nod as she grasped her own hands in front of her, needing something solid to hold on to. Being this close to Naruto always frazzled her nerves, even after all these years of training herself to be strong in his presence.

"How long have they been arguing?" she wondered out loud, looking up at the gray haired man in curiosity. He tilted his head to the side, very reminiscent of something the dogs he worked with might do when spoken to.

"A good ten minutes. At least." She nodded her head, wanting to sigh. When you put two explosives in such close proximity, they were bound to go off, after all. She glanced over at the last occupant in the room in time to see him rubbing the back of his neck as if he needed to smooth out some kinks, definitely stress-related. Shikaku glanced over at Kakashi and rolled his eyes, which in turn only made Kakashi smile more.

"You weren't thinking at all, you idiot! Do you even know who this is? Or, more accurately, who this _was_?"

"…No?" Naruto answered, sheepishly rubbing his hand through the back of his hair and making it stand up in all directions. Tsunade took a very deep breath, resting her face in one hand before she had garnered enough control to maintain looking at Naruto without trying to gut him. Taking her face from her hand, she looked up instead at Kakashi and Shikaku, both of which were staring at the bagged object on her desk as if they had no clue what was inside. And that's when Hinata realized, they probably didn't know. The only reason _she_ knew was because she had cheated, of sorts, with her Byakugan. Though the identity of the severed head was a mystery to her, she suddenly realized that one of the two men beside her might know who it belonged to and thus could shine a light on what its importance was, though with one look at the Hokage it was clear she already knew who it had belonged to. Without wasting any more time, Tsunade whipped the cover off of the head with a grand flourish, waiting for recognition to register.

Kakashi whistled while Shikaku made a curious humming sound. The head had extremely pale skin, almost translucent white; with hair that was so pallid it almost blended right into the skin tone. Where his eyes should have been white instead they were black, with no pupils but instead a wide orb of white that encompassed the zone from iris to pupil. His nose was straight and small and his teeth all came to jagged, carnivorous points, quite like what Naruto remembered of Hoshigaki Kisame and Momochi Zabuza's teeth. He looked vaguely familiar to Naruto, in fact, though the blonde was certain he'd never seen him before the last mission.

At Kakashi's whistle, Naruto seemed to realize that he and Tsunade were not alone and looked wonderingly over his shoulder, eyes widening as he noticed Hinata. His gaze leapt to the two men beside her, jumping back and forth as if the answer would be in their gazes, and he became frustrated when it wasn't. His lip pouted out and he huffed, turning back to Tsunade with a glare.

"That's not something you see everyday." Kakashi joked, scratching a sideburn. Shikaku sighed again.

"Well? Who is it obaa-chan?"

"Does the name Hozuki Mangetsu mean anything at all to you, Naruto?"

"…Who?" Naruto was laughing, his entire persona exuding how sheepish he felt for not knowing. However, Hinata was as much in the dark about his revealed identity as he was. There was no familiar feeling along with the name, and even the up close view of the face still frozen in a scowl didn't bring her to any conclusions other than blank ignorance. Before she could delve deeper into her memory, trying to draw up that name as if she'd read it somewhere before, a hand was suddenly curved around her from the left and Kakashi was pulling her closer to him, away from the vase that had been thrown with chakra behind it straight for a now dusty and cringing Naruto. The vase had crushed into his stomach and sent him flying straight back into the wall, breaking through the plaster to slide into the hallway. The few patrons there gave him strange looks, as if he alone was the reason he was buried under some rubble in the hallway and there was now a missing wall to the Hokage's office. Hinata watched in bemused concern as one patron even stepped right over him.

"You little idiot!" Tsunade snapped. "How many times have I told you: reconnaissance missions do _not entail casualties_. That's why they're different from normal missions! You go in _quietly_ and you leave _quietly_. You do not kill anyone that might raise flags, and especially not random rogue ninjas that are prominent enough to be Kages because they are _back from the dead_!" Lady Tsunade stood with hands spread over her desk, holding up her weight as she bared her teeth down at Naruto as he slowly stood and brushed the rubble and plaster from his clothes. He walked awkwardly back through the hole his body had left in the wall, frowning at Tsunade and looking no where near repentant enough to escape another flying vase should she find one. He even picked his pants from his butt, uncaring of any of the gazes currently staring at him.

"I still don't know who that is, obaa-chan. You can yell all you want but if you don't speak it plainly I'm still not gonna understand." Hinata flinched, waiting for the incoming projectile to knock Naruto yards farther than the previous one, but surprisingly none came. Tsunade simply straightened, shaking her head. She gestured to Kakashi as she turned her back on the room, looking out at the darkened village through her floor-to-ceiling windows, surveying the dim lights that spread periodically around the streets.

"Hozuki Mangetsu was a formidable ninja of Kirigakure's Hozuki clan. He was known to many as the Second Coming of the Demon, and was a member of the previous generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist." Kakashi paused, wondering how much Tsunade wanted him to elaborate. Taking her silence as the prodding it was intended to be, he continued.

"He died long before your time of unknown causes, but was indeed dead. He has one relative, a Hozuki Suigetsu, who has been seen traveling with a team of rogue nin including Uchiha Sasuke."

"Now do you understand, Naruto? You've just killed someone who was _already dead_."

From the expression on Naruto's face it was clear he still had no idea what was going on. Finally learning, though, he remained silent and instead screwed his expression up into one of helpless confusion. Shikaku was the first to take pity on him, opening up the floor for him and Kakashi to explain everything to Naruto in a way that he could finally understand why they were feeling such mixed emotions over his souvenir.

"There's no way you could have run into Hozuki Mangetsu, Naruto. It's impossible."

"But you just said that was him, right there!" pointing, Naruto gestured angrily to the head before reaching up to tug at one of the longer strands of hair framing his face. Hinata couldn't stop her mind from tilting off topic for just a moment, admiring the way his hardened, callused hands pulled through the golden strands. He was everything she wasn't, had everything she didn't. Whether it was his bright hair, his sun kissed skin, his sapphire eyes so deep not even the oceans they mirrored could compare to them, she was the complete, boring, opposite. Dark hair, pale skin, light eyes, was it any wonder everyone gravitated towards him and wanted to be in his shining presence? His smile was a thousand watt kind that seemed bright enough to transform those around him, and his words held more meaning when he spoke them than a thousand of her stutters. Was it any wonder she was in love with him? How could she _not_ be? He was strength personified. Everything he did, he did with confidence. Whether it was speaking or fighting or breathing, he lived it. Even with the proof of his plight carved into his cheeks, six deep scars that interrupted the smoothness of his skin, he wore them unflinchingly, like a badge of honor. _Was it any wonder_, she thought.

"Yes, it _should_ be impossible." Kakashi interrupted, crossing his arms over his flak jacket covered chest. "By all means you should not have been able to come across Hozuki Mangetsu, Naruto, but as you have so aptly provided us proof that you _have_, you can imagine how troubled we all are right now."

"Hozuki Mangetsu was dead. As in, dead and buried and gone. But here we have the man's head, and a story from you telling us you're the one to have killed him." Shikaku added, shuffling slightly to center his weight.

"And we believe you. How can we not? So the question is, what exactly does it mean that this man, who was and up until now has been dead, was alive enough for you to kill him once more?" Naruto seemed to understand, his jaw working as he considered all that was being said, and what was being left unsaid, too. Hinata was left wondering why in the world she was privy to this information, when all she had thought to do was come and be issued a mission, but she was not daft enough to think the Hokage would let her in on such important information if it was not meant specifically for her ears. So rather than interrupt and ask if she was in the right place at the right time, she kept silent, waiting patiently for what was to come. Her patience was duly rewarded.

"So, we need to figure out what we're going to do now. We cannot allow anyone to get ahold of this information. If the other villages found out that the dead were coming back to life, and not just any dead, but those powerful enough to cause some serious trouble, and not just any_where_, but around _here_, then we could be right back where we were with the last war. This is why I've asked you here, Hinata." Lady Tsunade finally folded herself back into her chair, now missing its handrails, and stared openly into the lavender, pupil-less gaze of the kunoichi before her.

"Naruto met and killed Mangetsu-kun on the border of Amekagure, far from his home of Kirigakure. As one of the Hozuki clan, he was able to be cut and wounded multiple times only to reassemble in a very…liquid-like manner. According to Naruto, the two of them fought for quite a while, with Mangetsu-kun constantly pulling himself back together and seeming undefeatable. In fact, the only reason he didn't reattach his head to his neck was because there was some sort of malfunction, something that made Naruto pause." Kakashi glanced over at the blonde and nodded as if to encourage him to explain, since he was the one who had experienced the situation directly.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't doing much damage the whole time because, like Kakashi-sensei said, he kept pulling himself back together. Kunai would become a part of him or something and he could fish them out of his skin as if he was made of mud. I was getting my ass beat for a while before his attacks became really jerky and uncoordinated. I mean he was strong, like seriously strong, and then it was like there was a malfunction in his brain or something . It looked like he was having a seizure even as he continued to attack me, so I just used my wind element and sliced his head off, ya know, thinking it would slow him down so I could catch a breather and then it would just plop back on. I'd done the same to his arm earlier and it'd reattached just fine. But then his head and body weren't moving and I kinda had to wait a few minutes for my chakra to heal me up a bit, but while I was resting this dude in a cloak comes out of nowhere, lands right in front of me, and starts picking up water-boy's body! So of course I jumped up and went to stop him but the moment I got too close he just disappeared. Like straight vanished. With water-boy's body under his arm. So I grabbed the head, which was disgusting by the way, and put it in my pack. I'm no Nara, but I knew I couldn't just leave it there." Naruto shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest again as he finished his story. "And now it's here. And apparently it's a dead guy that's now a dead dead guy."

Hinata's eyes were wide but there was a feeling of relief coursing through her. She hadn't thought Naruto would simply behead someone, even if they had attacked him and intended to take his life. He was more likely to knock them out and escape, especially if he was on a reconnaissance mission. He knew better than to stir up trouble on recon missions, or else Tsunade never would've allowed him to take such missions. The pieces were finally falling into place and the sense of understanding relaxed her.

"I'm assigning you a reconnaissance mission that will place you along the borders of Amekagure. We need to see if this is their doing, since Mangetsu-san here was a problem spawned right from within the walls of Kiri but was almost as far from there as he could possibly get, heading in the direction of Wind Country. Naruto couldn't get a good look at the mysterious cloaked figure that took the rest of Mangetsu-san, but his ability to vanish into thin air is anything but comforting. He'll probably be wanting the rest of his prize and having come across Naruto, we can be certain he knows the location of the head is in Konoha. But sending you to hunt down a ghost would be pointless, so until he pops up again and we can properly engage him, we'll leave it for another squad to deal with. All I need you to do is scout around, see if anything suspicious pops up, then immediately return. We're in the middle of rebuilding a village, which leaves us extremely vulnerable, and I can't have some of my top shinobi out running around chasing invisible leads. You'll be granted a maximum of three weeks to complete this mission, and I'll be expecting occasional reports and any urgent information immediately. " Taking in the news stoically, Hinata nodded her head, brushing a wayward strand of violet hair away from her eyes. For just a few moments, she forgot she was in the presence of the one person who would without a doubt make her nervous enough to resort to her stuttering, nervous nature.

"Will I be travelling with my team, Hokage-sama?" There was the briefest of pauses from the busty Hokage, one so quick and hesitant that Hinata almost missed it. Almost. The blonde's gaze became hard and intense as she stared the shorter woman down, surveying Hinata's every reaction before she finally opened her lips to speak.

"Because I want the utmost secrecy about this, I've complicated things a bit. I don't want anyone to know you're scouting, and your squad is infamous enough as an elite tracking unit that any sign of any one of you would tip any nin worth his salt off that you're there for shady reasons. So I've planted a mission within a mission, one that makes sense to have someone as ostentatious as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki along beside you, since he will be your only teammate on this mission." Hinata felt quite like she had traded places with the Naruto of a few minutes ago, being nailed right in the gut with a vase thrown hard enough to almost crash through her. Where had her stomach gone—was that it by her feet? But before she could even protest or whimper or faint, whatever her body needed to do to cope with this news, the Hokage pressed on, drilling her with a glare that demanded she stay conscious and focused.

"We have a contact in Kusagakure and he'll be expecting a scroll. You two are to deliver the scroll to him in Kusagakure, he'll pay you back in kind with a scroll of his own which is to remain sealed until it is in my hands, then detour back through Amegakure. Naruto will take you to where he came across Mangetsu-san, and you will station yourselves there and keep your eyes and ears open for any kind of information. I estimate your stay in Amegakure to be about a week. That should be enough time to find suspicious activity if there is any. You'll report directly to me the moment you make contact in Kusagakure, when you make it to Amegakure, and when you discover anything immediately concerning this…situation. You leave in three days. Understood?" Without looking at him, unable to actually look at him, Hinata straightened, morphing her complacent posture into the style a subordinate should have before a superior. She bowed low, respectfully, and said, "Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Naruto-brat?" Tsunade added, turning to him. He smiled cheekily at her, rubbing the back of his head again, crow's feet appearing at the sides of his eyes when he smiled.

"Why do we have to wait three days? That doesn't make sense," Naruto grumbled good-naturedly, casting a look at Tsunade who looked ready to rip out his spleen.

"Preparations." She said between her teeth, holding on to the last vestiges of her patience. Naruto threw his head back, staring heavenward before rolling it back into its normal anatomical position.

"Obaaaaaaaa-chan," he groaned, not understanding what was clearly left unspoken. Hinata knew easily enough that their mission scroll would have to be written up and all the essential information would have to be transferred, that the contact in Hidden Grass would have to be notified of their arrival and that they'd need to prepare monetarily and with their own items for their stays in each destination. Ever the impatient, happy-go-lucky character, Naruto almost groaned again at the silence his whining conjured from the Hokage, whose rare show of good manners were rapidly deteriorating.

"Naruto," she sang, still speaking between her teeth. "Say, 'Hai, Hokage-sama' and get the hell out of my building."

"Haiiiii, obaa-chan." And when he turned he smiled right at Hinata, a shining beacon that made her heart quicken a second before a text blurred through the air, slamming him through another section of the Hokage's office, plaster and wooden panels crackling around him.

"Are we dismissed, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked jovially, with his infamous eye-crinkling grin.

"I'll be speaking with you and Shikaku later, Kakashi, so don't wander too far. But for now, everyone get the hell out. Shizune! Where's my sake?"

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**A/N**: Hi ladies and gents and everyone in between! Your reactions to Naruto-kun having a severed head with him made me laugh. I guess this is as good a time as any for a friendly reminder that questions you have now will probably be answered in upcoming chapters (since this chapter probably raised a bunch of questions for you all), so keep in mind that your patience is greatly appreciated and will ~hopefully~ be rewarded :) Thanks for stopping by!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto...

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She had three days to prepare for a mission that would keep her in Uzumaki Naruto's company. Alone. With Naruto. To say that she was having a bit of a mental breakdown would not be an exaggeration. Which is why the next day she found herself out on the training grounds, by herself, attempting to perfect the newest taijutsu combination that Neji had been teaching her as a form of therapy to get her mind clear of all nervousness.

How had she gone so long without being paired with him on a mission and what's more concerning, why hadn't she _noticed_? She had been on a few missions with him before, of course, since there was no way to avoid working with Uzumaki Naruto, the ninja that could fit into any team, but she had always been with either her team or his. But now it was just going to be her and him, all alone, for a few weeks.

This whole train-so-you-can't-think thing wasn't really working. All she could think of was traveling through the trees with him, soaring like eagles with the wind under their jackets like wind under wings, with Naruto as bright and strong and swift as the eagle she thought him to be, though she would probably be more like a hawk. She dipped low, twisting in her crouch to whip one leg out as powerfully as she dared, allowing the momentum to twist her like a corkscrew right back up into a standing position, her hands following to end in a vicious punch, and a stumble. She mentally hissed at herself, wondering how in the world Neji had done this so smoothly and without a single stumble or jerky movement. The key to making it work was swift, continuous momentum, which meant she'd need enough speed to push through multiple attacks. But every single time she either didn't get enough and ended up having to jerkily push herself onward, or she got too much and ended up stumbling through her finish.

Neji had looked like a dancer on ice he was so smooth. She felt more like a drunken bull in a china shop. She took a deep breath, trying to center herself before pushing herself right back into the maneuver, cursing when she stumbled so much she almost tripped over her own feet. She had to focus if she was going to get anywhere, she knew that, but her mind and her muscles were flustered and everything seemed to want to work against her. She could feel a light line of perspiration down her back, making her jacket cling to her skin, but she was used to it. Her uniform was kind of a bother in the summertime when the sun was high and mighty in the sky, beating down on those of Konoha who ventured out beneath its rays. With pants that cut off just above her ankles, a normal fishnet training top and her lavender jacket, she was good and set for cold weather. Admittedly, her jacket was a light one and allowed for a lot of breathing room, but still she found herself wondering if she should just leave it at home every now and again.

Attempting the exercise once more, she was so focused on getting it right and making sure her speed and momentum were controlled but precise that she didn't even notice the gradually approaching figure. Her leg spun out, perfectly timed and tactfully level. Her hands followed suit, spinning with a newfound sense of purpose, before she breathed through the release of her fists and corkscrewed back up, biting her lip as her finishing punch was delivered flawlessly, her stance sure and stable beneath her. _Finally_, she rejoiced, so happy she felt she could fly.

"That was awesome!" a bright voice called, and Hinata jerkily turned to see Haruno Sakura walking over to her. Slipping out of her offensive stance, Hinata smiled at the incoming kunoichi, a light blush spreading over her cheeks in her embarrassment at being caught.

"Hello, Sakura-san." She greeted, curious as to what brought the medic so far away from the hospital. Her outfit was her normal ninja-wear, so it was clear to see she either had already finished her hospital duties or had the day off. From her rejuvenated temperament, Hinata was certain it was the latter.

"Did you just learn that?" Sakura asked, brow raised.

"Hai, Neji-nii-san introduced it to me."

"It was beautiful, like dancing. I can't imagine ever having the patience to do that in battle, though. I think my tastes are more suited to grisly wreckage than pristine strikes." The pink-haired woman smiled widely, eyes alight with mischief as Hinata laughed and accepted that that was probably very true.

"At the stage I'm at right now, I'd never dare to try it in a real battle." She explained, lifting a hand to tuck the right side of her hair behind her ear. "It's too…incomplete. It's rough and unfinished. Actually, what you just walked up to was the best I've managed to do so far." Sakura nodded, thoughtful. She lifted a hand to her pointed jaw, rubbing it before tapping her finger against it once.

"Yeah, I can see that. Are you planning to use it with Jūken? I thought I saw your hands fisted, though." Hinata's brows raised, surprised at her friend's quick observation.

"Since I'm just learning it I've been using fists rather than Jūken, but certainly once I can fit it into my normal taijutsu style I'll switch over to Jūken for more efficient damage. Why wouldn't I, right?"

"Definitely." Sakura nodded, a sudden gleam rising to her eyes. "Say, Hinata, we haven't sparred for a while. Wanna give it a go? You can try it with Jūken on me, if you want."

Hinata's lavender eyes widened and before she could stop it she found her mouth lifting into the vestige of a smile. She couldn't remember the last time someone had sought her out for a spar. It was refreshing and made her feel like she was improving enough to be _worth_ seeking out. She nodded her head, loving the sudden pump of adrenaline that coursed through her veins.

"I haven't fought someone with my level of chakra control in, well, _ages_." Sakura admitted, reaching down to her pack and pulling out her short black gloves. Hinata could only believe her, what with fighting alongside Naruto and Kakashi, two powerhouses that truly didn't need the level of control she or Sakura had, though if they did she was certain they'd just be even more indomitable.

"It should be interesting." Hinata smiled, backing away from her new opponent. Her heart was dancing behind her ribs, calling out for this incoming battle; ecstatic to get to test herself against someone who wasn't entirely familiar with her arsenal of moves, as Shino and Kiba were.

"Everything goes?" she clarified, one violet brow raised. Sakura nodded her head, cracking her gloved knuckles and smiling at the resulting glance Hinata gave them. She could not let herself be careless; she knew how strong Sakura had gotten, even without her chakra-enhanced strength. She was teammate of Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi and a member of ANBU Root, apprentice to Lady Tsunade herself, and had been teammates with Uchiha Sasuke. She was not someone to take lightly and Hinata wouldn't dare to underestimate her in such a way. On the other hand, she wondered if the pinkette would underestimate _her_, because she was seemingly as delicate as a flower and was always being cared for and accompanied everywhere she went. Some innate feeling in the back of her mind told her that Sakura wouldn't do that, though, especially now that they had grown closer with the bond of medicine tying them together and bringing about a friendship they had never seen coming. The pink-haired woman knew how hard Hinata had been working to grow stronger, knew how little free time she had because she spent most of it training. Sakura could relate.

"Of course." Sakura answered, pausing only for a moment to allow Hinata to move a fair distance away, shaking her hands to really get the blood flowing to her fingertips. Hinata activated her Byakugan without a single ounce of effort, the action so innate it was second nature. Everything became clearer, more comfortable, and she watched as Sakura's chakra channels moved and flexed with her preparations. She allowed her body to fall into a defensive position, one hand out before her and the other behind her, her legs held firmly beneath her for optimum balance. She drew a single breath in through her nose, feeling the air go through her at the same time that a single crow took flight above them, squawking and calling out. As the air transformed within her and returned back through her lips as carbon dioxide, she simply twitched her fingers in Sakura's direction; a taunt.

Sakura came at her hard and fast, a blur normal eyes might have missed completely. It was too bad that Sakura's opponent's eyes were far beyond normal and could see everything, including the maneuvers Sakura would wish to keep hidden. They fell into a tangled web of evasion, Hinata ducking and twisting and skirting whilst Sakura pushed forward and delved deep, trying so hard to land a single blow on the fluidly moving Hyūga. Hinata swiped low with one leg and made an awkward push forward with her palm flattened, taking Sakura off-guard. The move looked completely rough when compared to the fluidity of the Hyūga's dance-like taijutsu, and that was enough to cause Sakura to make a mistake, though she was quick to make up for it. As Hinata tried to press forward and hit the chakra center at the crease of Sakura's pelvis, which was at eye level from her comfortable crouch, the pink-haired medic pounded her heel straight down into the ground.

Hinata wasn't taking any chances, not this early on in the match. She leapt back and away before the shattered earth could harm her, flipping yards away and landing poised and unruffled back in her original stance. Sakura usually had the advantage of being able to hide in the aftermath of such devastation, most of the time coming straight up from underground to pound into meaty flesh. However, she was fighting against a Hyūga so any and all attempts to hide were useless. Hinata waited for her to burst through the ground, moving the scant inch she needed to in order to avoid Sakura's upward advance. Without time to block or defend herself, Sakura took three impossibly fast jabs to her left arm, shutting down chakra center after chakra center. As Hinata moved to strike once more, she realized Sakura wasn't moving away from her for a reason and had a split second to understand that first off, her wrist was going to be broken, and secondly, that she would have to heal it whilst escaping Sakura's clutches. She had a second to figure out which direction she wanted to somersault in as she felt Sakura grasp her incoming arm, as she'd known she would, and break the bones there in a single grasp. Hinata's left hand flew in with amazing speed and shut down the chakra centers surrounding Sakura's offending hand, giving her just enough time to extricate herself from the pinkette's grasp and leap clean over her head, landing solidly on one foot before projecting herself in a back flip away.

As she was upside down in the air, already healing herself, she sent loose a couple shuriken and ended up with a kunai in hand, bounding once more when her body straightened so that she was never a sitting target. She watched as Sakura easily evaded the incoming shuriken and pushed forward, coming right for her with a kunai of her own in her dominant hand. Hinata reached to her own pack and grasped another kunai so that each of her hands was holding one, finally coming to a stop to intercept the attacking pinkette. As their kunai clashed and a mad tangle of limbs ensued once more, Hinata swiftly flung one of her kunai straight up into the air under the guise of wanting a free hand to attempt to strike Sakura with chakra-laden fingertips. Sakura didn't seem to notice or care about the wayward kunai, only pressing forward harder and faster than before now that they were evenly armed. After a few more moments of fighting where Hinata took a few cuts from Sakura's kunai while the latter seemed untouched by Hinata's, the violet took a deliberate cut in the arm and disappeared in a tuft of smoke. Where before a human girl had been a log now remained.

However, the work that Hinata's clone had done with the kunai had been successful and the real Hinata now standing behind Sakura raised her hand to activate the seal she'd attached to the sky born kunai, watching without looking at it as it slowly fell back towards the earth. Within a second, Sakura was facing her once again but the explosion from the air made her pause, looking up to see fast approaching senbon heading right for her. Without a second thought, she lifted her arms as if to deflect some of them since they were too close and coming too fast for her to leap away from. But the moment she tried to lift her arm she hissed instead, feeling the cut of a wire as it dug into her skin there, though she was too distracted with the incoming needles to see how exactly Hinata had managed to wrap a wire around the arm holding her kunai. Hinata waited for Sakura to deflect the needles one-handed, knowing that she could, and waiting as she _did_, before she jumped back in to attack. She'd managed to get the wire around Sakura's wrist multiple times when they were fighting kunai to kunai, and she'd even managed to get it wrapped around Sakura's waist a few times as well. That was majorly to her advantage now, as Sakura was having trouble moving without feeling the bite of the wire slowly trying to sever her in half.

Hinata's hands searched for somewhere, anywhere to strike Sakura as the pinkette growled, now on the defensive. They were both panting, though it was unclear whether it was from exhaustion or exhilaration or both. Finally, as they clashed together once more Sakura swiped her foot through Hinata's and dragged her down to the ground, moving so fast there was no way to not land without her on top of the violet. There was a loud combination of sounds from Hinata's back hitting the ground and Sakura's body landing heavily atop her, and the dust they'd kicked up managed to clear enough to show that the match was over.

Hinata lay panting on her back, kunai point digging into Sakura's side enough to pierce the skin, clearly in a position that should she simply thrust upwards Sakura's kidney would be destroyed. However, lying atop her with legs straddling the violet's hips, Sakura had one hand wrapped around Hinata's throat and another with a kunai of her own poised over Hinata's thundering carotid artery, dipping in to draw a bead of blood. They laid there, unmoving, panting into one another face's for a long moment before Hinata's lips slowly rose and brightened like a sunrise over her dirty, bloodied face. Sakura felt a responsive smile lifting her own lips and found herself laughing as she removed the weapon from her friend's neck, pushing herself off so that she rolled over next to her, back in the dirt. Together they laughed so hard and so long that their sides began to hurt from it, uncaring that anyone that might've come upon them would've certainly thought them insane.

"Wow," Sakura gasped, sounding elated. Hinata nodded, agreeing entirely with the unspoken euphoria that they were both feeling after a suitably wonderful, dangerous spar.

"That was better than sex." Sakura then blithely remarked, causing Hinata to blush to the tips of her toes and hide her face in the elbow of her sleeve. They laid there for a long while, just smiling up at the sky or with eyes closed, waiting for their pounding hearts to find a steady rhythm once more. Finally, Hinata managed to pull herself up into a sitting position and reached over to uncoil the wire from around Sakura's right arm. The pinkette let her, hissing when the wire had to be removed from her skin and cursing aloud when she had to sit up so that the violet-haired woman could unravel the coil from around her waist. Shooting the other woman a playful glare, Sakura waited for her to coil the wire all the way up and return it to her pack before she spoke. She didn't seem to mind the bloodstains.

"When did you even put that on the kunai to get it wrapped around me? I swear I didn't even know it was on there until the damn senbon storm, which, by the way, fuck you. I had no idea the Hyūga heiress played so dirty." Hinata looked sheepishly back at her friend, blush rising to answer the truth of the pinkette's statement and accusation.

"I have quick hands," she explained simply, shrugging. She pointedly ignored Sakura's sarcastic _I hadn't noticed_ and rolled her sore neck, courtesy of a punch so powerful it'd twisted her neck too quickly for the muscles there to accommodate for it.

"It was all during the kunai component, Sakura-san. Didn't you question my movements and the strange directions I was striking in?" Sakura looked confused, her brows knitting in a frown and her teeth coming down to gnaw on a full lower lip.

"I was a little surprised you weren't aiming for my soft spots," she admitted, still chewing on her lip. The lavender-eyed woman nodded, waiting for the understanding to prickle over her companion.

"I secured the wire then wound you up." She explained and the understanding finally took hold, washing over Sakura like a bucket of ice water.

She _ooh_ed and whispered, "You witch!" before shaking her head, upset that she'd been so easily duped. Hinata blushed again, nodding.

"Damn. No matter how many times I fight you I always underestimate you, and I don't mean to. Honestly, I don't. But when you threw that kunai up into the air? I knew it'd have an explosive on it, but the senbon storm took me completely by surprise. I don't know why I didn't realize…how I didn't see it coming."

"Tenten-san taught me that one." Hinata smiled, fondly remembering how she herself had reacted to the storm of incoming senbon coming from Tenten's exploding kunai. "But it's understandable. I'm coddled and self-conscious so it makes me seem weak. You're not the first friend I've had underestimate me and you won't be the last." Sakura was already shaking her head before Hinata finished, her expression now completely serious.

"I _never_ thought you were weak. Quite frankly, I don't think you're coddled, either. I think your clan bugs you a bunch and are uptight assholes that need to give you some space, but I feel like that's even more of a burden on you than it is a help sometimes. If there's anyone in the village who is liable to have a mental breakdown, it'd be you."

"…Thank you?" Hinata paused, wanting to laugh. Sakura seemed to realize what she'd said and what she'd meant hadn't really come across well and quickly moved to clear things up, scratching the back of her head in a way that was distinctly reminiscent of Naruto. That made Hinata smile more, taking in the pinkette with a fondness that years of battles, protectiveness, and hard-earned trust had wrought between them, knowing that she'd picked that gesture up because she was always around Naruto.

"Well, you know what I mean. You have all this pressure on you and it's been like that since you were _born_ and I know a lot of people take that for granted. A lot of people just see you and your assistants and Ko and they think 'spoiled princess'. But I know it's hard for you because we're close enough for me to have seen the other side, ya know? I know how caged you are and how much pressure is always put on your shoulders and it's like, no one ever sees that. They don't see how scary it is for you to even think about disappointing your clan, let alone _your father_. And how scary it is for you as the heir, as the older sister, to try to keep the clan's grimy mitts away from your sister. I don't know, I guess what I'm trying to say is a lot of people underestimate you, Hinata, because they don't take the time to understand you. And I'd be a bald-faced liar if I said I didn't used to be that way, before I really knew what you were about. People are lazy and brains are even lazier, we both know that. If they're not invested in you as a person, but just see the Hyūga heiress, then they're gonna accept whatever comes easiest to their brains, which is usually that you're a spoiled princess. It takes time and effort to realize that you're in a really shitty position with a lot of shitty side-effects."

Hinata sat speechless, wide-eyed and in wonder at her closest female friend. No one had ever understood her situation quite so well, let alone chosen to actually voice it. Especially someone who didn't come from a clan and didn't have that first-hand experience that allowed for them to understand how dark and twisted clans often were. Hinata realized then that Sakura really had to have paid attention to her life, to her as a person, in order to have come to those conclusions. She really _cared_, and even though they were friends and it was a give-in that Hinata cared deeply for Sakura, she was insecure enough to still be amazed at the revelation that Sakura honestly, truly cared about her. If there was ever a need for proof, there could be none greater than this right here. She felt like crying but refused, absolutely refused to do so. She was past that.

"Sakura," she whispered, her voice shaking slightly with emotion she couldn't hold back. The beautiful pink-haired kunoichi was leaning back on her arms, her shoulders jutting forward and her legs crossed over one another. Hinata looked over at her and smiled, her eyes gleaming with the love only best friends could feel for one another. "Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me, baka." She shrugged, as if her words hadn't just shattered Hinata in a new and lovely way that made her want to embrace the pinkette and cry.

"I just thought, you know, that you should know that there _are_ people out there who understand what you're going through. Well, as much as we can without actually ever experiencing the dreaded clan." The way Sakura said the latter one might think it was a poison on her tongue, something vile and dastardly and terrible. It warmed Hinata.

"Kami help me if I ever get involved with a clan. I'd tear them and their stupid rules apart with my pinky fingers. They'd hate me so much." She was smiling as she said it, her eyes glazing over as she clearly began to imagine it. Hinata could only imagine with her, the sight of Sakura in a kimono of pure white with silver-lined sakura blossoms adorning the hem, smashing through buildings with only her pinkies, demanding that the clan 'give her some breathing room'. The thought made Hinata smile, too, and before long they were laughing again, just too women relaxing after a hard-fought battle, basking in the beauty of their youth and their freedom. They sat there silently for quite a while, long enough for the sun to switch places in the sky and the temperature to very gradually begin to drop. They watched the village before them shift and shimmer and the people, who from this distance appeared as tiny as ants, bustle about in their every-day lives. Hinata was sitting hunched over her crossed legs, elbows resting on each thigh with her jaw in her hands when Sakura's voice once again broke the silence.

"So have you planned for your mission yet?" It was posed innocently enough, but being that this pink-haired firestorm was teammates with the very person Hinata was going to be travelling with, not to mention how aware both Sakura and apparently everyone their age was of Hinata's 'crush' that the violet wondered if she shouldn't have expected this line of questioning. She glanced over at her friend and smiled shyly, bending a finger to rub against her soft cheek as a mild distraction.

"I…have not. I planned to today, of course, but before I knew it I was here training."

"Distraction." It wasn't a question, because they both knew it was true. Sakura leaned forward and mirrored Hinata's position perfectly, finding it was more comfortable than her previous position and also enabled her a better view of her long-haired friend's face.

"Yes." Hinata admitted. "To be honest, Sakura-san, I'm not sure what to do. I've never been on a mission with just Naruto-kun."

"It's easy: just bring him a lot of food and make him a lot of food." Sakura joked, flipping her short hair. Hinata smiled at her, admiring her confidence most especially when it came to Naruto.

"Easy for you to say, Sakura-san. You don't clam up and act like an idiot every time he's even in the same room as you."

"I used to, with Sasuke-kun. Hell, if he was right here I'd probably still do it. Boys have an annoying habit of doing that to us girls, don't they? How dare they be appealing." Sakura whined, chewing on her lip again. The gesture was telling and Hinata knew that even though she joked, Sakura was actually thinking very seriously about the subject matter.

"Do you still love him? Sasuke-kun, that is." She asked it hesitantly, not wanting to upset Sakura but genuinely curious all the same. They had a relationship where these kinds of things, things that were very personal and could easily stir up volatile emotions, were often shared between the two without fear or judgement. If someone had told Hinata at the academy that one day in the future she and a certain spunky pink-haired kunoichi would be the best of friends, she might've laughed at them. But now, in the moment, the thought of sharing secrets and personal information about herself like this with anyone other than Sakura felt wrong. Sakura looked over at her, face wiped entirely of any amusement or teasing. Hinata knew that even now the pinkette was cautious with her information, scared to speak it for fear of it roaming around, even when she knew that Hinata would take it to the grave. She'd had a few mishaps growing up after the academy, where information she'd wanted, _needed_ to keep private had been wrongfully spread and had hurt her beyond repair. And here and now the affects were still showing, as even before her best friend and one of the quietest most trustworthy people in the entire village, Haruno Sakura hesitated.

"I don't," she finally admitted, and a light blush spilled over her high cheekbones. The blush was what keyed her in immediately, more telling than Sakura might've liked to know. She was being completely honest, Hinata knew that with certainty, but the blush spoke of a current affection for someone who was very obviously not the subject they were speaking of. Hinata couldn't help but smile, so proud of her friend for overcoming an obstacle she'd been struggling with for years, the obstacle of a girl promising to love a boy until the end of time only to realize as a woman that the man she'd promised to love was…different. Unworthy, Hinata would even say, of her love. Sakura was a wonderful person, kind when she could afford to be, a leader when she needed to be, calm and reticent when she knew she had to be, and always strong. Uchiha Sasuke had abandoned a frail young girl and never knew the treasure he was abandoning, though some might speculate that maybe it was his leave that jump-started the trip down the road that led Sakura to become such an amazing woman.

Hinata wouldn't believe that for a second. Sasuke may have left Sakura behind, but from the moment he did he was out of her life and she was on her own. There was not a single person, not even Naruto who had stayed beside Sakura all those years afterwards, who could claim responsibility for the strength Sakura embodied today. No one but Sakura could claim responsibility for who she was now.

Hinata gave her a knowing look, demanding with her eyes that Sakura spill and tell her who her new love interest was. Sakura only laughed, shaking her head and eyeing her suspiciously.

"I thought we were talking about _you_ and Naruto!" she evaded, blushing even more. Hinata frowned, trying to morph her face into the one Akamaru often made when he knew she'd bought beef jerky and still had it on her. Sakura's eye twitched as she saw it and she looked ready to protest before finally expelling a large sigh, dropping her head down to rest on her legs.

"I'm not at liberty to say exactly _who_ just yet, but he's…definitely…older." Vague as she could, she peeked up at the heiress and groaned into her legs when the puppy-dog look was still there.

"Nope, no, _no_, Hinata. I can't say right now. We were talking about you and your inability to keep your cool around the idiot." Instantly, with the tables turned, Hinata mirrored Sakura's movements and dropped her face onto her legs, though she kept the groan in her mind. She'd let Sakura off the hook for now, though that didn't mean she'd be looking at every single shinobi that was older than them with a more critical eye from now on, regardless that that was sure to be a failed venture. Whoever it was that was currently holding Haruno Sakura's affections—were they even that serious yet? Hinata wondered if they simply only held her _admiration_—would have to own up to certain expectations one reclusive little Hyūga heiress would unabashedly demand of him. She may be shy and anything but forward, but if someone was juggling her best friend's heart in his hands, he'd better be able to come clean and measure up to the standards Hinata knew Sakura deserved. Like loyalty, honesty, and _challenge_. Sakura was a brilliant woman, one that needed constant mental stimulation in order to live a fulfilling life. The previous Hokage must've had this in mind when deciding on who her Genin squad would be, since she'd had to focus on one unstoppable force on her left and another wholly uncontainable force on her right. Sakura _needed_ that stimulation, that constant challenge that was often followed by exhaustion, because she was upbeat and modern and ambitious. As her best friend, Hinata was not planning to let her settle on a loser who could hurt her, not again.

"What do I _do_?" She moaned a moment later, peeking over at Sakura the same way the pinkette had looked at her. Sakura smiled knowingly, and for the next couple of hours proceeded to coach Hyūga Hinata as best as she could in the arts of acting normal around someone you otherwise don't know how to act around…at all.

* * *

Sakura's advice had been solid and more helpful than Hinata could've ever hoped. Her friend's words had made her realize that if she was going to get through this mission without any breakdowns or a stream of constant anxiety, she truly needed to give her mind a break. She couldn't keep thinking and being nervous about what was to come in the future and she couldn't even pressure herself to perfect the new taijutsu Neji had shown her. She needed to put her mind to rest for at least enough time to actually cool off and settle her jumpy nerves.

She did this through gardening, and painting.

Though gardening often settled her nerves the most, it also served to keep her mind busy and focused and ultimately anything but relaxed. Mostly because she used most of her gardening talent to procure herbs and medical brews for all sorts of healing and thus needed to make sure everything was precise. Of course not all of her gardening skills were spent with medicine in mind, as she had a full garden within the Hyuuga compound as well as in the same place she always painted.

Her hobbies weren't something the public knew about, _especially_ her paintings. In fact, if she had a choice, she would make sure that she was the _only_ person who knew about it. But that was a little difficult when your entire family had the ability to see through walls and even long distances away. She knew they probably wouldn't mind her hobby, but it felt personal to her. It was hers, and hers alone. And if she sat on the veranda and tried to paint she'd just be worried if someone somewhere in another section of the compound was watching, too.

Which is why she'd taken to bringing her supplies to the top of the Hokage monument, stashing her brushes and paints and even her easel away in the core of an indistinguishable tree. Not that it mattered where she chose to hide everything, since any member of her family would be able to see everything if they were to come up here. But they wouldn't, she was certain. The monument was at the back of the village and was so high up it was rare to find anyone else up there. And it wasn't as if anyone in her family was interested in what she was painting. Her father thought the pastime useless and a waste of time, and he had no qualms about voicing said opinion. Often. Hanabi found it amusing but never poked fun at her older sister, mostly because Hinata was one of the only people who knew of Hanabi's own particular hobby that she kept hidden away from the clan and her friends: flower arranging.

It was no surprise that the tough and stoic little brunette would want to keep such a hobby a secret, especially from her father who thought Hinata's own hobby of gardening was silly though he did in fact see the benefits it could have medicinally. Just what would he say of his youngest daughter enjoying the tutelage of one blond-haired mega-gossip in the art of arranging flowers to look their best, with no contribution to her strengths? Hinata hated the judgmental air that Hiashi often wore around them, though she understood why he had it. But that didn't mean she was going to let him and the clan crush her little sister's only hobby aside from fighting, so it was more than easy enough to enlist Hanabi's help whenever Hinata wanted to add to her gardens. The young brunette was well informed of flower types and their respective meanings and favored the delphiniums, though she never specified a favorite color. Hinata's favorites were hydrangeas. And so, of course, every garden she began was riddled with mostly those two types of flowers, though Hanabi often brought home several other species from the Yamanaka's shop.

Today she found herself setting up her paint supplies beside her easel, staring out over the reconstruction of Konoha, the breeze playing with the ends of her hair. She was glad to be wearing her jacket now, since the tail end of the breeze was cold and left chills in its wake. Stretching her arms overhead before she began mixing colors, she allowed an image to take its place in her emptied mind. This was how it always happened for her: she'd clear her mind and let the wind take her thoughts away before an image would appear, dim and unstructured, calling out for her to detail it and bring it to life. Most of the time the scenery up there affected her and she would paint trees and forests of deep greens and earthy browns, or maybe skies of aquamarine speckled with clouds of stark, stark white. Sometimes she just drew birds, of all shapes and sizes and kinds, ranging from steely grays and harsh blacks to golden maroon infested creatures that looked doused in flame. It all depended on her mood, on her day, on her heart. Whatever that beating organ conjured up for her, she would paint.

And most of the time, it conjured Uzumaki Naruto.

She'd painted him so many times and in so many ways she no longer had trouble figuring out where to start, because with someone as complex and multidimensional as Naruto, it didn't matter where she started. She could begin with the golden hue of his wild hair or the stark lines of his scars, the bright horizon orange of the body of his jacket or the honeyed tan of his skin. The only area she ever felt trouble with were his eyes; so expressive, so deep, how could she ever accurately capture them? She never made the blue quite deep enough, or at the same time, bright enough. It was never the exact color and the shape was never exactly the same open, friendly make. She struggled with every painting she made of him, wanting to trash it or rip it or even burn it because it was so frustrating to have spent so much time watching him and yet _still_ she couldn't paint him accurately. Was it even possible to capture eyes so fiery yet as blue and cool as the far out waves of the ocean?

She knew how ridiculous it sounded and she knew how obsessed people would think she was, but she didn't care. When you were passionate about something, you wanted it to be in your life all the time, in everything you see, in every breath you breathe. Painting calmed her down. It relaxed her where nothing else could. And in this way, she could use the image of the person who made her most nervous in the world and channel it into creativity, into a talent she could cultivate, and for once not be nervous.

She had so many sketches and unfinished works of just his face or his profile she didn't much know what to do with them. They were irritating, clawing at her even in the darkness of sleep, calling out to be completed. But the eyes…just weren't right. They weren't, and she couldn't come back and touch them up, and yet she couldn't dispose of them either. So they remained up above the village, tucked away into various tree cores, rolled within one another. Some were wrinkled, some were pristine, most were dirty, some even had blood on them from when she'd stupidly thought to calm down immediately after a mission, still wounded, too tired to heal herself, too tired to do anything but lose herself in the paint.

She couldn't help herself. She loved to paint him. How could any artist not want to work with what he had to offer? He was a little bit of every color, a rainbow walking amongst shades of gray and black and white. With Naruto, every smile could be painted with a new color, every expression lifted new undisclosed lines in his face that would make him look like a completely different work of art. The crow's feet beside his eyes alone were detail enough to steal her away from reality for hours, trying to paint them so that they do proper justice to his smiling eyes.

This morning, she found herself starting with his jaw. Hard and squared, she traced it with her brush and could've sworn she could feel it beneath her smooth fingertips. Naturally, her hands were steady and smooth, controlling the brush as if it was an extension of her hand. In this art, she was ambidextrous. She could paint equally as well with her left as she could with her dominant right, though she preferred to use her right hand. Both hands were equally steady and very sure of themselves, never really pausing or jerking to a stop, worried about ruining the art. She had no one but herself to impress when she did this, and so mistakes were passable within the work. She made sure to never leave the chance of being caught, even by Neji; coming up so early in the mornings that the first light Konoha saw first touched her pages. No one knew of her absence in the compound, she was far too cautious for that.

She was well and truly alone. And so she painted, working through the dips and angles that made up someone she cherished and admired. Her brush kissed his features like the touch of eyelashes to skin, as gently handled as a newborn in her hands, as steady as a stream.

Sometimes she'd come up here and look at the blank page before her and she found she couldn't see hair and skin and clothes and smiles. Instead, she saw the intricate web of bright almost neon shades that made up the working system of Naruto's chakra. She'd seen it so many times through her Byakugan eyes she could draw it from memory, though the end product always came out perfectly in her eyes, she tried to look at it from someone else's perspective. She realized after the first few times she'd painted them that people would probably be estranged from what they saw, at odds with what they thought of chakra and what she _knew_ of it. And for that reason she tucked those away with all the rest of her works, never daring to let anyone see them, either. Though Naruto's was not the only chakra signature she painted—not by far. His had been the second, actually, behind Neji's. Then of course she'd attempted to conquer Naruto's inner workings, then Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Hanabi, Tsunade, Kakashi, Tenten, and actually…now that she actively thought about it, the only person she had left from her generation was Uchiha Sasuke. Everyone else was already tucked away on their own respective sheets of paper in the cores of several trees, hidden away and untouched since the day she'd completed them.

She tilted her head, finishing now with the rest of this Naruto's face and starting on his forehead protector and hair. How would she get Sasuke's chakra signature? She had yet to see him when on a mission, even from afar. Squinting slightly though she didn't realize she was doing so, she recalled what his chakra network had looked like when he was twelve, but that wasn't acceptable. Everyone in her group was already twenty, though some like her were still nineteen. Sasuke's chakra would be an entirely different storm within him, though from what she did recall of his young self she could probably paint him with accuracy. His was the kind of chakra signature one didn't forget easily, after all.

Finishing up this painting and leaving it as just a profile shot of a wayward looking Naruto, she tore it from her easel and let it drop to the ground beside her, uncaring that she might accidentally step on it. It frustrated her, like they always did.

She moved with purpose, mixing brighter colors than the last, recalling how Sasuke's chakra signature had been brighter than almost all the others' had been. She remembered looking at it and thinking of a _storm_, even in his presence that's how it'd felt to be near him. Like you were in the eye of the storm and any false move could set you into the throes of it. She wondered as she mixed more white into the already brightened blue she'd mixed for Naruto if Sasuke would still feel like a storm or if he'd darkened to a shuddering molasses of shadows. She reached out and began to paint his chakra network, taking brief moments to pause so she could recall his twelve-year-old self and how his signature had moved within him.

It took her longer than expected to finish it, but once she stepped back and gazed at it she found herself smiling sadly. Here was the boy who had stolen Sakura's heart and broken it, who had taken Naruto's companionship and laid it to waste. Here was the prodigy of her generation, even more impressive than her own nii-san, even more stoic and close-mouthed, too. But this, this image she had captured, was not the monster she had heard him described as. This was a twelve-year-old Sasuke, one who had saved Sakura in the Forrest of Death, one who had accepted Naruto when no one else had.

Here was a boy fighting a losing battle.

This thought was enough to reinforce what Hinata had already known: that she needed to be there for Naruto, to help him no matter what the cost to fulfill his dreams, his goals. And one of those goals was to bring back Uchiha Sasuke. Sakura had basically said the same just the day before; that in order to be comfortable in Naruto's presence, Hinata simply had to be her self. Because if that was true, if all she had to do was be herself, then she would already be trying to help Naruto along on his coarse. That's just what she did, what she was proud to do, what she knew _how_ to do. If he needed someone to stand behind him, she would be there without having to be asked. Always, no matter what.

Sighing wistfully, she started packing her things, stretching loosened muscles as she dipped down to pick up her paintings and roll them together. Her long reflections almost always lasted long enough for her work to dry enough to be rolled together without being ruined. The sun was now fully lifted and visible and the beginnings of movement in a rare few homes could be seen from her masterful gaze, meaning she had to return quickly to the compound lest she be caught missing. She tucked her tools away inside a tree, then her artwork in another, and proceeded to run freely to the side of the monument, bounding down the layers of the mountain until she landed on solid Konoha ground. She made her way speedily through the barren streets, happy to be alone lest someone tell of her early morning adventures. When she finally made it back into the compound she had to slip through her sister's window, since it was both the closest to the monument and one of the only windows facing it. It was also always curiously unlocked, much unlike all the others. As she slipped through, quiet as a shadow, Hanabi grunted in her sleep, which Hinata instantly understood to mean 'just in time.' She deviated from her intended trail through the room to hers on the other side of the hall to lean down and brush a strand of Hanabi's hair away from her face, tucking it behind a small ear.

Hanabi reached up to swat her hand away, grunting quietly once more. Hinata smiled down at her before leaving just as swiftly as she'd entered, and not a moment too soon. After discarding her clothing and shoving the pile into a corner where it wouldn't be seen immediately, she laid herself down upon her futon, snuggling under the covers and feeling the heavy droop of her eyelids. But sleep was not to come, since she'd spent longer up at her private spot than she'd thought. One of her personal assistants came quietly into the room, cleaning and bustling about with a necessary level of noise so as to inform Hinata it was close to time for her to rise. She shuffled over to the corner of the room and Hinata knew without opening her eyes that her hiding spot had been found out.

"What the…" she heard the woman mutter before she sighed and then walked over to the other side of the room, shuffling something around until light streamed in and over the heiress. She didn't say a word as she left; she didn't need to. When the light was high enough in the sky to shine into her room that way, it meant it was time for breakfast and then training with her father. Hinata rolled over, lavender eyes gazing at the ceiling. She wondered if she would be confident enough to use Neji's new form against her oto-san.

* * *

**A/N**: Eheh...eh. Been a little longer than I expected (dodges bullets) but as a full time college student with a job I have a lot less free time than I'd like. This chapter has been my favorite so far, mostly because Hinata's spar with Sakura is pretty much my favorite thing. There's always "therapy sessions" between dudes (i.e. Sasuke and Naruto) where they clash and talk and get things off their chest even while beating each other into the ground, and I really just wanted (needed) one such therapy session between my two favorite girls. They're both so strong and awesome, they deserve more than just a ~sleepover~ or ~night out~ to discuss their issues, though sometimes those two occasions _are_ fitting and necessary. Let's blame it on my love for female fighters doing what they do best: destroying and looking good doing it. :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

It was time.

It felt like she'd only just been given the mission statement and had had no time to prepare herself, even though she'd had three good long days of rest. Her pack was slung over her shoulder, a distinguishable weight that settled comfortably across her shoulder blades. Her lavender and navy ensemble fit as loosely as she preferred it to though it was a little stuffy being under Konoha's dazzling sun. She wouldn't be worried about the heat for long, however, since they would soon be in Kusakagure. They being she and Uzumaki Naruto.

Biting her lip with pent up nerves, Hinata first turned to wave in farewell to Ko before closing the gate to the Hyuga compound behind her. The advice she'd garnered from Sakura was rolling around in her head as she headed for Konoha's front gates, swishing against the corners of her brain, filling her with nothing but anxiety. How was it that people acted comfortably around those they admired? How did they act naturally and not make fools of themselves? She didn't think she could do it, not around _him_, not on a mission where they would be one another's only company.

But Sakura's advice had been qualified and true, and if she said that Hinata had to simply relax and try to be herself, not minding what Naruto might be thinking of her, then she would follow through. After all, she had given Sakura her word. And Hinata Hyūga never went back on her word.

With a quiet sigh that seemed to push the stress straight out of her pores, Hinata lifted her chin high and marginally picked up her pace. She could do this. It was only Naruto, and Naruto was only a man. A fellow ninja. The future Hokage. The savior of their village. The man she'd loved since the academy days.

She hoped she could do this.

* * *

The initial greeting had been awkward, as she'd expected, but Naruto was a natural and easily steered them through a few different conversation points, seemingly testing the waters of her personality and willingness to converse. She responded in kind, trying her best not to stutter and doing quite well, though she couldn't exactly keep his gaze for long periods of time. That was fine with her if it meant she could seem like a normal person, able to talk to him comrade to comrade. Naruto interrupted himself just before launching into a story about some old mission he and Kiba had recently been on and gestured towards the land outside Konoha's gates. Understanding his gesture, she nodded and instantly they lifted themselves into the trees and began their journey to Kusagakure, while Naruto enthusiastically continued with his story, which as most of his stories proved to be was accompanied by his easy laughter. Glancing over at the orange and black-clad shinobi, Hinata found herself smiling at him, watching his expressions shift as easily as leaves in the wind.

"So he's challenging me left and right and saying how he could beat me at anything, and then he's telling me to choose a venue for a challenge." His muscled shoulders shrugged, pushing his own pack up and down with the jerky movement. They were moving so quickly through the trees now that the background behind him was a blur of deep greens and earth browns that did little to distract her from his face. "So I chose a ramen eating contest." His expression turned sly as he side-eyed her, watching as she lifted a hand to cover the laugh that escaped from her lips.

"Kiba-kun doesn't much care for ramen, Naruto-kun."

"Yeah, well, then he should've thought out his challenges a little better. Nonetheless, he went through with it. I won of course, no one beats me when it comes to ramen, dattebayo!"

Smiling at his enthusiasm, Hinata asked, "How long ago was this?"

"Pretty long, actually. A few months?" Naruto answered, rubbing the back of his head even as he gracefully landed from branch to branch, his feet barely even touching the bark he was moving so quickly. It wasn't difficult for her to keep up, but she knew for a fact that his stamina could outlast hers thrice over, so she'd need to watch her reserves. She hummed in response to his answer, smiling kindly but unable to look at him, knowing that he was looking over at her. Unwarranted, a blush rose on her cheeks and made her skin feel hot.

"I was curious, since Kiba-kun, Shino-kun and I just recently had Ichiraku's and Kiba-kun seemed fully inclined to finish his bowl of ramen. Well, before Akamaru showed up."

"Yeah, I guess it's been a long enough waiting period between the challenge and now, because let me tell you something Hinata-chan, he couldn't even move afterwards. The smell of the ramen was enough to make him vomit. He didn't want to be on the same street as the ramen shop, let alone within the same village. Maybe he's trying to build up his appetite for round two." The prospect seemed to amuse the blonde haired ninja, as he shook his head and snickered to himself. Now that they'd gotten to talking and were feeling more comfortable around one another, a silence fell between them and it was as comfortable as they came. Hinata could still feel her heart pounding in her chest, beating like a drum and making her bones vibrate with the force of it, but her smile was easy and constantly on her face. Naruto stayed a pace ahead of her, since he knew the direction to Kusagakure better than she did, but every now and again he'd look back at her, most likely making sure that her condition was still stable.

Resentment curled into the pit of her stomach for a mere second before it was overcome by the feeling of pleasure at being checked up on, even when they were doing something as simple as running. She didn't mean to react so aversely so quickly, but she was so used to being coddled that she'd grown an innate sense of distaste for those who underestimated her without knowing what she was capable of. But then, because it was Naruto and he was making sure that she was okay, it made her toes curl in her sandals and her heart flutter. It was confusing enough trying to find the perfect normalcy between nervousness and comfort in his presence; she really didn't need to have such conflicting emotions warring within her at a simple look cast her way.

Shaking it off, she pushed a little harder and bravely came up closer to his side, smiling shyly at him when he glanced over with a raised brow. That was a big step, wasn't it? That had been all her and she'd done it without hesitation and now she was close enough to reach out and grasp his sleeve if she so chose. Quite proud of herself, she focused ahead of her and once again activated her Byakugan for a few seconds to make sure they wouldn't run into trouble without being prepared. Feeling his gaze on the side of her face, Hinata managed to ignore him and focus on her task with only a blush to show she knew he was looking. Either way, it didn't seem to matter to him, as he continued to stare without any sign of looking away even when caught in the act. The veins beside her eyes settled back in and her sight dimmed back to normal as she nodded in his direction and mumbled, "All clear."

A look of genuine curiosity flitted across his whiskered face and his blonde brows pinched together, mouth twisting slightly. Gradually he slowed his pace until he was jumping from a twisted branch down to the forest floor, his landing silent enough to blend right into the chirping of birds and beetles around them. She followed suit without losing any of her momentum, landing beside him in an equally silent crouch before she waited for him to flick his shoulder forward, telling her that they'd walk for a little bit. She was thankful for the break and reached back to grasp her canister of water, taking a generous swig before glancing up and shyly offering some to Naruto. He declined in favor of posing a question, clearly the one that he'd wanted to ask up in the trees but for some reason had felt unsure whether to ask or not.

"What does that feel like?" His voice was low and scratchy, almost as if he was embarrassed to be asking her. Violet brows knit together and her lavender eyes met and held his for the first time since they'd left the village.

"The Byakugan?" she watched as he ducked his head once and then tilted it slightly while waiting for her answer. She took a moment to think about it, unconsciously reaching up to touch the skin around her eyes. She knew exactly where every vein would appear and how many would appear, depending on how much or how far she was straining to see. The more she strained, the more veins appeared on her skin.

"I guess it feels like fire. Caged fire." At his expression she could tell that he was clearly confused and she knew she wasn't explaining it right, so she gathered her thoughts again and tried to bring sense to her words. "It's like pressure in this entire zone," she rubbed the bridge of her nose to the sides of her head, just above her ears. "It burns but there's no pain, and there's so much pressure at first it's a little uncomfortable because it feels like something has to give. But then it settles and it's just a…a zone of p-pressure that lets me focus entirely on what I need to see."

Slowly Naruto nodded his head, understanding brightening those pools of sapphire. He glanced down at his feet to make sure he didn't trip over anything since most of the time he was just staring at her eyes in what she hoped was fascination and not revulsion. Some people thought Hyūga eyes to be beautiful, but many more thought them creepy and lifeless enough that they would better suit a zombie. Hinata reached across her body with one arm to grasp the other self-consciously, hoping she hadn't said too much.

"That's pretty neat, Hinata. Hey wait, can you see yourself too? Like in your zone of visibility are you included? Or is it just your surroundings?"

"I-I've never been asked that before, actually. I can see myself, though when it's activated I don't really pay attention to the rest of my face, though I'm always aware of my body." Once again, expressive blonde brows rose and one corner of Naruto's mouth ticked up. Feeling encouraged, she pressed on after tucking a piece of violet hair behind her ear, showing the right side of her face to him unobstructed.

"It's so intense that when I first started practicing with it I'd forget about my body and focus completely on what I was seeing kilometers away, but then Neji-nii-san showed me how vulnerable that left me. It was a lesson I'll never forget. I guess if you let yourself get too caught up in it, it's sort of like Ino-san's mind transfer technique. Your body becomes very vulnerable unless you include it in your line of sight." She was so happy that he was actually interested in this subject that she could almost feel the happiness bubbling up inside her, waiting to burst free like steam from a teakettle. Naruto's expression was serious, taking in what she told him and nodding as he seemed to file it away. Then, without a shift between the seriousness he'd just expressed and the current delight on his angled features, he was smiling his mega watt grin with eyes closed and one hand absently scratching the back of his neck. Hinata traced the lines that made up the crows feet beside his eyes for a brief moment before forcing herself to look away, not wanting to get caught up in something she found so adorable.

"That's so cool, Hinata! I wish I could experience that." And he laughed, the sound like soothing wind chimes turning in the wind, beautiful enough to make her cast her gaze up from under her bangs to stare once more, only briefly, stealing a glance she had no right to. The sound was enough for her to start wishing they had some wind right then, since the forest remained as muggy and still as it had been when they'd left.

"Everyone has such cool techniques," Naruto added, opening his eyes to cast a playful glance in her direction. "It'd be so cool to see through things like you and so far away! Or jump into someone's head like Ino. Might be nice to have Sakura-chan's strength so I wouldn't constantly have to fear her pounding me through the Earth."

"Well, you have the Rasengan. And you've created so many different forms of it. And kage-bunshin! No one else can make kage-bunshin like you, Naruto-kun." Rubbing his head sheepishly, Naruto let out a heavy breath.

"Yeah, I guess so. But those still aren't as scary as super strength or mind invasion. Or super vision." He added, glancing over to her once more with a cheeky grin. Hinata laughed under her breath, shaking her head and bringing a hand under her heavy veil of hair to swipe it over her shoulder and let the back of her neck cool off with the fresh air now unobstructed.

"Everyone has become so strong." She whispered, smiling fondly. Their generation was one of the most talked about in the entire shinobi system, what with the prodigies and the few who had work ethic like no one could believe. Rock Lee himself was an amazement to all clans roaming about that ever thought those without chakra could never become shinobi, let alone of Jonin class.

"It's so nice to see those who others put down grow up to prove everyone wrong, don't you think?" The words tumbled out of her mouth before she realized how Naruto might take them, thinking she was talking about herself when in truth she had been thinking of Sakura and Ino. Moving quickly to clarify, she added, "Ino-san and Sakura-san in particular. They're so beautiful everyone thought them fragile, like flowers, but look at them now."

"Definitely." Naruto agreed, shivering as he thought of Sakura and her newfound strength. He'd thought she was a bit scary before her apprenticeship to obaa-chan, but the monster that had been born from that tutelage was nothing that he'd ever been prepared for.

"I always knew Sakura-chan was strong, since she was on my team. But I wasn't so familiar with other team members like Ino, Tenten, or Choji. I always knew Shikamaru was a genius and Neji too, though he was a stuck up genius—no offense—and then of course Rock Lee and his garden of youth motivation proving invincible." Hinata nodded, agreeing completely. Though she'd known her own squad was steadily becoming stronger and more of a necessity to high-class missions, it was hard to judge the strength and worth of the comrades that weren't on your team. For Hinata, she had always wondered at Tenten's strength before Neji-nii-san actually started bringing her around for training. She'd also wondered about Akimichi Choji's strengths too, but had never really gotten anywhere in that line of thought.

"I think Ino surprised me the most, to be honest." His tone was sincere, his hands now resting in his pockets as they continued to walk towards Kusa. Hinata thought about that and couldn't help but agree with him.

"Her interrogation skills were indeed a surprise."

"They were more than a surprise. I was fucking terrified!" Naruto blurted, uncaring of his language even when in the midst of an heiress to one of the most prestigious clans in Konoha. Knowing that he always had and always would treat her just like everyone else warmed her.

"One day I walk by her in her store arranging posies or some shit and then the next I see her coming out of the Detention Center with a mean smile. I swear, Hinata, she didn't even blink."

To anyone who knew Ino and knew her well, her behavior coming from an interrogation was as standard as a civilian's morning routine. She walked through the transitory shadow cast down from the heavy main door to the Detention Center, placed strategically above the underground cells where the actual torture was handled, always wiping her hands with a small white towel. Anyone who didn't know the blonde interrogator might be confused at seeing her exit with her pristine uniform unmarred and hands clean and smooth and uncontaminated, yet still always with that towel.

But what many people didn't realize was that there were many things that hands needed to be cleansed of, and not all of them were visible.

The things done down in the dungeons below Konoha's Detention Center were often fodder for the rumor mill, and even more often they were false. People let their imaginations run wild when it came to torture, and yet most of what one violet-clad Yamanaka had heard hadn't been the least bit creative—chopped off fingers, periodic slices with a kunai, classic beat downs with fists and fists alone. Ino told Hinata of this lack of creativity whenever she got the chance, often rolling her eyes and outwardly wondering how there could be so many sources of gossip and yet none of them were even close to what really went down in the dungeons.

Of course, as a sort of last resort or as she liked to think, a secret weapon, Ino often was called in when the criminal was far beyond the necessity of physical torture. Yamanaka Ino was good at what she did—terrifyingly so—so much so that she never once had to get her hands dirty. Quite literally.

However, to hear her explain a common trip down those dilapidated steps, one would think _sure, of course, the towel is a good idea_. Hinata had no idea how the blonde managed to spend hours underground sifting through brains—either literally or figuratively, even Hinata wasn't sure—before coming back up into the sunlight, stretching, and wandering off to get her nails done all without any breakdowns.

Hinata took a moment to wonder about the paths that she, Sakura, and Ino had all wandered down and how each path had strengthened them enough to create the three powerful kunoichi they were presently.

Hinata had trained her body through grueling sessions of stand-alone sparring, often waking up before sunrise for her cursory sparring session with Hiashi-sama and Hanabi, then going through several hours of various training techniques and simulations. By the time she was done training, the moon was centered over the village, every muscle in her body screamed, and simply walking felt like a severe uphill battle. She'd lost count of the number of times she'd trodden into the Hyuga compound, soaked through with sweat and blood and grime, and simply fallen into her futon, fully clothed and unconscious before her head hit the pillow. Then of course she was also working at the hospital and taking regular missions, as well as routine sparring sessions that lasted longer than all the rest with her team, mixing in visits to Kurenai-sensei and her daughter when she could and pushing herself to shop with Neji-nii-san when she had to, or else she might've withered away, though she highly doubted Neji-nii would ever let that happen.

Sakura had a very similar work ethic as Hinata and was one of the violet's most common sparring partners when she wasn't doing triple transplants, concocting antidotes to undiscovered poisons or saving entire squadrons from certain death. In one day. Sakura was a whole new kind of amazing that Hinata admired more than she could ever put into words. The woman slaved away at the hospital day and night and was in charge of hundreds of lives every week, including that of her staff and those she was mentoring. She helped Tsunade-sama in what little spare time she had after the hospital and had also been doing regular missions with her team, though Hinata was sure those missions were entirely different from the ones that team 8was being tasked to complete. Team 7 was a whole new animal, working like a well-oiled machine, unstoppable and unfathomable in strength, a powerhouse without match. It was no secret amongst the rookies that team 7 had a certain leverage that came from a combination of extreme work ethic, dedication, and God-given natural talent.

However, what differentiated Sakura's road to power from Hinata's was both the absence of someone like Neji-nii-san in her life and a variety of sparring partners. After Uchiha Sasuke had left the village, Sakura had gone through a powerful change spearheaded by her determination to prove herself strong. As a naturally more out-going and confident personality than Hinata, Sakura would frequently be seen sparring with different training partners almost every day, varying in time. She utilized Rock Lee's strength and asked him to put her on a backbreaking training regimen that hurt Hinata just to think about. She sought out Tenten for weapons training, Shikamaru to advance her technical and strategic mind, and several other shinobi of differing talents and abilities. Such training had made her arguably the most well-rounded shinobi that Konoha had to offer, though her strength alone was something to make her stand out exponentially. Hinata, however, was too shy and lacking in self-worth to garner the courage to ask people to take their time to train with her. Rather, she researched as many training methods to strengthen the mind, body, and soul as she could and put them to use on a daily basis. And though Hinata lacked Sakura's charisma and consequently the capability to ask her comrades for assistance as the pinkette had, there was one factor that Hinata had in her life that Sakura did not, and his name was Hyūga Neji.

If Hinata forgot to shop for herself or even feed herself, she'd no doubt find a very irritated cousin at her door with bags of groceries balanced perfectly on his arms. Sakura, however, didn't quite have that backup. She had Naruto, who encouraged sodium-induced comas at Ichiraku when he felt Sakura looked too thin—Sai who used to confuse her pale countenance as one needing its vitamins and had begun to stock her cabinets literally to bursting with every type of vitamin he could find—and Kakashi-sensei, who sweetly suggested she invest in a barstool at his favorite bar and proceed to help him drink himself under the table. Obviously Sakura had a lot on her plate, though none of it was the nutritious food she needed to consume. Luckily, she had Hinata and Ino to casually restock her fridge with essential fruits and small cartons of milk and as many protein bars with long-lasting expiration dates as they could find. Sakura had never given them a key, per say, but that didn't mean her two closest girlfriends couldn't challenge themselves to get past her traps and stock her up with basic nutrients her body needed.

And then there was Ino. The beautiful, eye-catching blonde bombshell that had been more interested in boys than in school and had found comfort in her family's flower arranging business when her childhood love abandoned the village. It was well known around the rookies that Ino liked to arrange flowers and by working at her mother's shop she was only further enhancing her charisma and confidence in getting her way. It was not, however, a well-known fact that at the same time that shinobi like Sakura and Hinata were sparring in the fields, that one Yamanaka Ino was being privately tutored by one scarred interrogator who towered over her and was four times her size. As someone taken to people watching, Hinata could remember seeing the change in Ino and wondering how she'd missed something so obviously different for so long.

Ino's turquoise eyes had always been brighter than the stone they were named after and as luminous as sunlight through a glass of water, but somewhere in between all of Hinata's training and working she had noticed that those eyes had become…hard. Practiced. _Cold_. Ino was the same girl she'd always been, lively and magnetic and amiable enough to spread endless amounts of gossip throughout the village without garnering hate. But if you looked closer and watched those eyes of hers you could see them study you, look _into _you, and she didn't even need to use her family's kekkai-genkai to get into your brain.

One simply had to be in her presence. That was enough to offer enough information to make a just call on what you were hiding if you were hiding something and then somehow she'd sweet talk it right out of you. Somewhere between the demands of their schedules, the three kunoichi had become three different kinds of dangerous that _no one_ wanted to dabble in. The men on their teams knew that best. Sakura with her chakra-enhanced strength and masterful medical jutsu, Ino with her encroaching charisma and effortless ability to get into your deepest secrets, and Hinata with her nearly perfect chakra control and her ability to sense danger in a radius of kilometers around her. Three completely different sets of skills, with one very terrifying common denominator: each woman now had the ability to kill with a single fingertip.

Sakura could easily crush an entire ribcage with her pinky finger.

Ino only had to touch your forehead with her index to unravel your entire mind.

Hinata could touch the space over a heart and make it explode with mere chakra.

Konoha was filled with dangerous shinobi and though the most well known names were often males like Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, and Hyūga Neji, it was truly the women that should instill fear.

Hinata had not gotten close to Ino as quickly as she had with Sakura, but the pink and blonde duo had always been a package deal: you get one, you get the other. So not long after Hinata and Sakura started to bond over medicine, Ino started appearing more and more in the heiress's life, though Hinata couldn't exactly remember if she'd ever been explicitly invited.

Their friendship wasn't immediate, either. It wasn't a fast friendship that took off and secured itself without trials, arguments, and suspicion. But it was a friendship that took root like an oak tree, with a small seed implanted in a healthy fertilizer. It was watered and cared for and even though there were times when it was trampled over and halfway dug-up, it survived and it grew and prospered into a bond with more depth and love than Hinata ever could've hoped for, and now still to this day it continued to grow and cast a calming shade over the three of them, protecting them and comforting them in the bond of their love for each other.

The thought made Hinata smile as she shifted her pack to allow her back a brief burst of fresh air. The forest was muggy and stuffy and making her sweat more than she'd like to admit, which of course only made her more uncomfortable even though Naruto was a pace in front of her and couldn't see the stains she could clearly feel. He was sweating, too, but of course he managed to somehow make it look good with only a slight darkening to the fabric of his top on the small of his back. They had about another day's worth of running to do after they set up camp and rested for the night, though Hinata wasn't worried. They hadn't encountered much of anyone yet, and even with her constant Byakugan enhanced scouting she sensed no hostile chakra or energy around them.

* * *

They made camp about an hour after the sun settled behind the mountains, casting dark shades across the sky as the moon gradually began to take over. Naruto laid out both sleeping bags while Hinata started a fire, lifting her gaze with a single ember, watching it ascend through the smoke up into the canopy of trees surrounding them. They had chosen a spot deep in the forest, surrounded on all sides by trees of massive girth and height and covered in different species of birds and insects. The chirping of night critters rose up around them, helping to conceal any noise they might be making though with Hinata around the chance of a surprise attack was close to nil.

Springing to his feet, Naruto stretched his back and walked over to the fire, grinning at her as he rubbed his hands inches from the small flames. Sharing the pleasantness of the night and the warmth of the fire, Hinata walked over to his side and joined him before the fire, mimicking the movements of his hands.

"We should cherish this weather, since it'll be our last night without rain or mist." Hinata mumbled, taking a small moment to wonder whether she was brave enough to take her jacket off and embrace the gentle heat of the night. Too easily she decided against it, not wanting to offset the comfortable atmosphere she was currently in. In fact, she hadn't even really been that nervous with him, other than the first half-hour or so of their trip. In fact, the past hour of travel before they set camp had been filled with laughter and jokes, each telling their favorite stories and embracing the wonderful weather that Fire Country blessed them with.

Of course, Hinata was still very shy and felt a little awkward, blushing constantly and struggling to keep Naruto's gaze, but conversation steadily became easier and easier to hold. Before long it wasn't just Naruto telling stories and making her laugh, but Hinata adding her own fond memories and bringing Naruto to the precipice of tears when recounting a particular mission where she had gotten lost in an abnormally large bathhouse, resulting in her finding her way right into the men's section in only a towel. To Hinata, this had been cause enough for her to sprint into the nearest hiding spot and faint. For Naruto, this was enough to bring a familiar light of glee into his eyes and a bubbling laughter from his throat that charmed her through and through.

"I love this weather," Naruto agreed, smiling down at the flames. Hinata could see the reflections of embers in his eyes and wondered, briefly, if he could see the same in hers. "I love everything about this country. The sunshine and its heat, the people, the infrastructure and the buildings. I love the teachers and the academy and even our profession, no matter how terrible it can get. I couldn't imagine doing anything else." Hinata watched him speak, watched his lips form the words of the things he cherished and she felt love coil around her throat and choke off her breathing for just a moment. Looking away, Hinata centered her mind and focused on the embers breaking away from the wood.

"Sometimes I can." She whispered and from the corner of her eye she saw his face jerk towards her, obviously surprised. She smiled up at him, eyes searching his for just a moment.

"S-sometimes I wonder what it would be like just to live a civilian life, to look for a husband and have a family. To care for a home I'll always be in, rather than a compound or an apartment I barely see because I'm constantly traveling on missions. I've always dreamed of having a little house, just one story, with a beautiful garden. I'd tend to it every day with as much dedication as I would to my family, nourishing it like I hope to nourish my l-loved ones." Catching herself falling into the nostalgia of a dream she had never shared with anyone other than Neji-nii-san before, she glanced at Naruto's expression, wanting to see how he was taking it. He was looking at her strangely, as if she was a creature from another planet. Self conscious, she tucked her hair behind her ear and gave a quiet laugh.

"They're just thoughts, though. I love being a shinobi. I love being able to be strong enough to offer aid to my village and my people, and I love the time I get to spend with my precious people because of it. It may not lead to a stable life, but it's one I'm very glad to have nonetheless." He was still giving her that look, his mouth almost hanging open, eyes wide.

"What?" she whispered, laughing nervously.

"I'm sorry, I just never thought you'd ever say something like that. I mean…you're an heiress. And to the Hyūga clan! You're practically famous within the village and you have incredible connections already. It just amazes me that you'd ever dream of anything else, ya know?"

"Ah, Naruto-kun." She sighed, deciding in that moment to be utterly honest with him. She didn't fear telling him because she didn't trust him, quite the opposite in fact, but she knew that with this concession she was going to be giving away a lot of information about herself and that made her nervous. What if he thought less of her for it? She was willing to risk it, simply to take the chance to have him get to know her better. Someone had to take the first step and Hinata was certain it'd have to be her, because he was all too willing to share about his life and his inner thoughts. But for her, it'd be obvious that she was doing something out of the ordinary, something worth noting as significant.

"That's exactly why I dream of something else." Her gaze softened, her expression becoming serene with her honesty. "You're right, I am an heiress to a prestigious clan and because of that, I have a lot of c-connections within the village. But I am also very isolated from my peers and even my precious people because of it. I get singled out and many responsibilities have been resting on my shoulders since I was a young girl. I'm always busy with clan politics and events, constantly surrounded by my elders and isolated from anyone too intimidated by my family to visit or r-request time with me. It's…a lot to take in every day."

Openly staring, Naruto slowly nodded his head, frowning.

"I guess that makes sense. I didn't even realize you had to deal with things like that."

"Not many people do," she added, smiling softly. Then, realizing that she had essentially just told the boy who had grown up without parents or any form of positive attention that she had too much and disliked it, she began to feel distraught. Would he judge her for her truths? Would he think her selfish, a brat, because she who essentially had everything had the gall to complain about it in the face of a man who had never had anything but himself?

"Naruto-kun, I…I don't mean to say that I don't appreciate my family and I'm honored that they invest so much interest into my life and my future as clan leader. You must think me incredibly selfish to sometimes d-dream of a d-different lifestyle." Finding that her heart felt like it was in her throat and there were butterflies raging against her insides, she found herself subconsciously lowering herself into a comfortable crouch, resting her elbows between her thighs and staring down into the dirt lit around the fire. Shifting fabric beside her told her that Naruto had decided to crouch next to her, though he remained silent long enough for her to feel like a complete imbecile.

She must've offended him somewhere and he, now thinking that she was a brat, must be lost for words. She wanted to hide her face in her hands but refused to resort to something so childish in the face of an adult conversation. They stayed like that, crouched in what Hinata felt was an uncomfortable silence for an untraceable period of time, she staring into the dirt and wondering what he was looking at the entire time. Finally, just when she was about to turn to him and apologize, she felt his knuckles gently tapping against her left bicep.

Turning to his prodding, blush spreading through her face from her embarrassment, she studied the befuddled yet kind expression on his face and wondered how to interpret the frowning brows and the straight mouth facing her.

"Hinata, why would you say that?" his mouth turned then, the corners lowering into a frown that seemed etched into his skin. "Why would you say I must think that you're selfish for dreaming of a different life?"

Hinata didn't know how to respond, she really didn't. Was it worth another blatantly honest answer that could potentially lead to an even lower opinion of her? A small part of her was telling her it wasn't, but her heart was beating loud and strong and reminded her that this was Naruto and that even if it hurt his opinion of her, she would always be honest with him. She owed it to him, as a comrade, as a friend. As someone who cared deeply for him. She would never lie to him.

"What I m-meant w-was that it's very selfish of me to dream of a d-different life because I'm overwhelmed by constantly being w-watched and assessed. It's selfish of m-me to resent the attention g-given to m-me…w-when you…you grew up without any positive attention. It's not f-fair that I complain about getting too much attention to the one person who p-probably w-wanted it and n-needed it most." She could feel the symptoms that preface tears coming and she hated it, mentally pushing them back and forcing herself not to try to look at Naruto. She couldn't distinguish anything from him, not a single sound to give away his reaction. When she couldn't take it any longer, she forced herself to look over at him, mentally preparing for anything.

The shadows she saw in his eyes reminded her of death and the way his head was tilted cast shadows of its own across his features, sharpening them, making them appear more haggard. He was staring into the fire, unmoving except to breathe, elbows resting on his thighs with knuckles almost touching.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, feeling the hair tucked behind her ear come loose to allow a curtain to shield her face from his view.

"Hinata." His voice was quieter than she'd ever heard it and that scared her. Second-guessing the entire conversation and berating herself for even bringing up his past, she almost missed the words coming from beside her, mixed together with the crackling of the wood beneath the fire.

"You are probably the least selfish person I have ever met in my entire life." And she tensed, her muscles frozen, breath barely entering her lungs. What had he just said? She couldn't look at him, truly she could not; not now.

"You're right that all I ever wanted was attention, didn't necessarily have to be positive though I _was _desperate for it. I just wanted to be noticed. The people in the village, they tried to erase me. They isolated me and pretended I didn't exist until they saw me; that's when I'd get my attention. They threw everything they could think of at me, words, sticks, stones, kunai. If you were any other person I'd tell you that after a while I got used to being treated like that, but you're too perceptive to believe that, aren't ya? No one ever gets used to loneliness. Not truly."

She heard the rustling of his clothes a moment before his hand came into her view, gently pushing the curtain of hair separating them behind her shoulder. A single tear had swept down her cheek and left a wet trail behind it, but she didn't move to wipe it away because he was smiling at her, his honest and beautiful smile.

"You're not selfish, Hinata. Even though I struggled because I didn't have what you do, that doesn't mean that you didn't struggle, too. I grew up with too little notice and you grew up with too much; makes us quite a pair, dontcha think?"

"Hai." She managed to laugh, watching as his smiling eyes searched hers before crinkling with his signature grin.

"So don't worry about me, Hinata-chan! I think now I've managed to round up enough attention for a lifetime. Don't give up on those dreams of yours, either! You can still get a house and a garden if you want. You probably just have to hold clan meetings there or something, but I'm sure you'll figure it all out. If there's anyone who can bring some good old change to the clan system, it's gotta be you, dattebayo!"

A smile of her own rose to meet his, her cheeks lightly shaded pink with a happy blush she couldn't hold back.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun."

"No problem. But now onto the important stuff…what'd you pack to eat?"

* * *

**A/N**: I KNOW I KNOW I'M SORRY DON'T HURT ME. It's been a really long time in between updates and for that I do apologize, truly, but I've just been really busy lately. I'm in my last two weeks of finals with a part-time job and I recently got pretty sick, but now I'm getting better and I only have 2 finals left! However, I will have larger spaces between updates from now on. Please be patient with me. As always, thank you for your reviews and your time! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and please do take care of yourselves! : )


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto.

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When they finally passed over the Kusagakure border they decided to stay in an inn on the outskirts of town, low rent and low-key. Settling in and making a game-plan was easy enough, but finding the target in the spot that Tsunade-sama had specifically designated was proving to be a little more difficult than expected, even with Hinata's Byakugan.

Hinata knew that if Naruto had been with her he would've said, _well if you can't see him he obviously isn't here._ And she would have to agree with him on that, since she had searched high and low for their target, Byakugan activated, and was still walking circles around herself, feeling useless and discouraged after so many days of raw travel. Frustrated, she decided to meet back up with Naruto in hopes of discussing their options from this point forward. She waded through the town, surprised at the vivacity of the familial lifestyles moving around her like a living mass, all working in sync with one another. Kids bustled by her, mothers padded past with arms full of folded cloths, grocery bags, and the occasional weapons set. Men dawdled here and there; mostly moving with variations of the same straightforward, no-distractions gait.

As she continued to head towards the last recorded spot Naruto had been searching in, Hinata played with her fingertips and felt a dull throb echoing through her temples. She'd had the Byakugan activated for too long looking for their target, and now she was paying the price, albeit a small one. She _was_ a mednin after all.

Turning the last corner before their meet-up destination, Hinata felt a tingling on the back of her neck, the delicate hairs on her nape standing on end all at once. Before she could even turn her body, her knees bent and she let gravity take her to the ground, flattening her palms against the dirt road for just a second, waiting as the last thunk of the incoming kunai resounded in the wood behind her. She shot straight up and whipped around, fingers ready in her signature style, Byakugan once again activated.

"That was pretty good." The attacker was standing right in front of her and with such open body language Hinata almost felt offended. She stared at him and pointedly looked at his hands, which had just flung six kunai at her but were now tucked carelessly inside his pockets. When she didn't move from her defensive stance, a jaunty grin rose upon his face, his light eyes twinkling in the fading rays of the sun.

"Oh come on, it was just a friendly hello, one heavily armed person to another."

"Luckily for me, I'm quite used to that variety of welcome." She responded coolly, keeping her stance even as he tried to talk her out of it. There was no trusting ninja that weren't familiar, that weren't your _own_. Even if they were allies, there was always a possibility for betrayal, and though that was a pessimistic way of viewing life, it was also an experienced view. One that Hinata had been forced to take up after one too many of those betrayals endangered her safety and the safety of those she cared for. She watched his grin turn sultry, sly, a smirk rather than a smile. When he spoke it was only a word but his pronunciation turned it into a sneer, dripping with malevolence.

"Indeed." And then, very slowly, he began to move his hands from his pockets. It was apparent he knew she could see them, knew that she had the Byakugan and knew what that meant she could _do._ She allowed it, knowing all he had in those pockets were fists, even though fists were enough of a weapon to still be cautious.

"Hyūga Hinata, is it? You can call me Ryūko. I'm your tour guide for the night." Chills ran down her spine, mostly from the tone of his voice but also because he knew her name and was alluding to knowing that she was to meet a contact in this town. He didn't fit the description that they'd been given perfectly, though the differences were in shades of color, while his body type and build matched their mark. Anyone could dye their hair and change the color of their eyes, but he was missing some very telltale scars he'd had his whole life and that made Hinata wary. Of course, he could've had them touched up by an advanced medic, but grass country wasn't particularly known for their expertise in medicine.

"I am here on business, but none that concerns you, sir." She slowly fell out of her defensive position, bowed her head as politely as she could in a way that was as much a dismissal as if she had turned away, and waited for his response, hoping he'd leave. But even then, from her experience with both stubborn men and ninja in general, she had an inkling that he'd stay, even if it was just to press her buttons. She didn't have time for this, and where in the world was Naruto?

"Oh, what? You don't like what you see? Wondering why my hair isn't green anymore? You know, we _are _in grass country, right? I want to blend in, but not right into the landscape." At her continued silence, he let out a sigh and jolted towards her, reaching out with his long arms as if to grab her. With the length of his long legs the single step made him appear to be leaping towards her, his large hands coming straight for her. Without pause, she used his momentum against him and pushed him face down into the dirt, her hands reaching down to incapacitate him only to be batted away as he rolled out from under her, flipping backwards to land back on his feet. For such a tall man he certainly was agile. Hinata came at him again, not giving him enough time to completely recover, her hands flying, the veins beside her eyes standing out against her skin. She deflected his incoming punch to her gut and managed to barely avoid his other hand's mimicking swing, briefly surprised to note that he was ambidextrous.

His long leg finally caught her, fast and hard right in the hip, bruising her almost instantly. She turned with the blow and ducked under his outstretched arm, chopping into his side with a chakra laced palm. He grunted and went down with the blow, and from there she proceeded to seal off the major pressure points in what seemed to be his dominant arm. She was about to flicker to his other side and finish the job when a shouting voice startled her, coming closer as the seconds ticked by. She kept her eyes on her opponent but watched Naruto turn the corner with her Byakugan, waving his arms at her and running full speed towards her. He called her name the whole way until he reached her, skidding to a stop right beside her and leaning with his hands on his thighs, breathing heavily.

"Shit," he huffed, catching his breath and looking up between sweaty blonde bangs. The stranger groaned from below her, holding his right arm to his body so it wouldn't jostle. Hinata knew the feeling that would be coursing up and down that arm and into the shoulder, even going so far as to tighten the muscles in the neck. She had not held back.

"This is Ryūko," Naruto panted, still out of breath. She wondered why he was so tired when she was in the spot he was _supposed_ to have been in. He couldn't have been far, unless he had gone looking for her the same time she'd decided to come back to him.

"He's our target. I already hashed out the interrogation and made sure he was the real deal, I was gonna bring him over to greet you but when I got to your spot you weren't there and he wasn't with me again. I mean I figured you'd come to my spot eventually but man, I didn't think I'd find you kickin' his ass! I mean we need him but that was awesome Hinata!"

A deep blush settled over her cheeks and spread to the tops of her ears, her Byakugan diminishing and disappearing altogether as she stared at the big man in front of her, grumbling something she didn't feel comfortable repeating. She didn't hesitate, kneeling beside him and reaching out with hands glowing so that she could heal that arm of his. She ignored his flinch and the way he instantly snapped, "Hey, hey, hey!" And began opening the chakra points she had just closed. She muttered a sincere apology and ignored Naruto's laughter, which seemed to both embarrass and irritate their target.

"Hey, shut up kid. This is your fault."

"What? How is this _my _fault? Those kunai in the side of that building aren't Hinata's."

"How do you know? You came so late to the party you didn't even see who threw them."

"I came early enough to see her wipe the floor with you, though. And Hinata's blades have insignia from her clan on the handles," Naruto spoke as he plucked the blades from the wall, brushing his callused fingertips over the holes. Ryūko got to his feet, begrudgingly thanking Hinata as she stood with him, bowing her head once, still utterly embarrassed. Coming back to stand with them, Naruto chucked the blades back at the taller man all at once, which Hinata thought was a little tactless, but he managed to catch them easily enough. After securing them back into his leg holster, Ryūko turned to look at them both, shaking his head.

"Man, you all are just a bunch of kids. I've heard of this dipshit, but I never thought he'd be so small, ya know?" Dropping his elbow atop Naruto's head, the big man grinned brightly at Hinata, who wore a small smile now that she could sense that he wasn't mad at her for the fight and the resulting pain that was still dwindling in his arm and neck. Naruto shoved him away and cursed at him, saying something about how he was still growing. Hinata watched them bicker for a little bit, laughing to hide her embarrassment when they get a little too obscene, and found herself recalling how Naruto used to act around Sasuke as surprisingly similar to his interaction with this stranger. Though he was definitely much more sociable and sleazy than Sasuke ever had been, the man was surprisingly similar to the childhood Sasuke that their generation had known. Argumentative and boastful and willing to go toe-to-toe with a rowdy and ruffled Naruto. Finally, when it seemed that fists and kunai were going to be getting involved, Hinata cleared her throat and directed their attention back to the mission.

"My sincerest apologies for our earlier dispute, Ryūko-san. But we are on a tight schedule, so if you wouldn't mind producing our package…?" Ryūko smiled at her and lifted a hand to self-consciously rub the back of his neck, something that she had never seen anyone but Naruto do. It was a curious feeling, seeing someone else do that. Naruto had his arms crossed and seemed to be pouting, but there was a glint of seriousness in his eyes that told her he was prepared to follow up on the mission and give up on their little contest.

"Ah, of course Hinata-chan." Startled, Hinata looked first at Ryūko who had a suspicious color change occurring over his cheeks, then to Naruto, who had straightened at the same time she had. She didn't mind the forwardness, really, but it was surprising all the same.

"Here it is, the good ol' package, from my hands to yours." He must've realized how awkward his wording was because the light pink over his cheeks darkened and spread further, confusing Hinata even more. He was almost acting as if he was nervous around her, which made no sense on account of them practically wrestling earlier. There was no way he was…frightened of her, was there? Naruto was flickering his gaze between them suspiciously, arms still crossed, but when Ryūko went to hand the scroll into Hinata's shaking hands, Naruto moved quickly and ripped it away from him. Hinata watched him closely, ignoring the new insults slipping from Ryūko's lips at the abrupt gesture. It was true that Naruto was acting a little suspiciously, a little unlike his usual self, but the expression on his face made Hinata think that he had surprised even himself. He wasn't usually this irritable, even with people who verbally or physically sparred with him. As he tucked the scroll into his pack, unopened as per their orders, his scrunched face cleared like the opening curtains of a show and he was once again jubilant and eager to move forward, his previous confusion disbanded.

"And now we have to give this idiot his package too, ne, Hinata-chan?" Shooting him a questioning look, Hinata merely nodded, unsure as to what his change in attitude would lead to. She reached into her own pack and grasped the rough, rolled up paper in her hand. When it appeared before them and she went to hand it to Ryūko, Naruto's hand came into her field of vision first. She looked him in the eyes, trying to find the answer to a question she didn't even understand in the deep pools of blue there. Instead, she found the reflections of the sunset lighting his blue irises on fire as the sun slowly descended behind the mountains. She hesitantly handed him the scroll and watched with a drawn brow as he handed it to Ryūko, then dusted his hands together. Ryūko grumbled something neither of them heard and let out a huge sigh, before turning to face Hinata with eyes curiously reminiscent of Akamaru's. The memory of the big dog made Hinata feel relaxed and even a measure more comfortable.

"My name's Ryūko Daisuke, by the way. Dipshit got it out of me, but I thought you should know too, right?"

"Oh," Hinata hummed, unsure of how to respond. "That's a nice name."

"Thanks. It's kinda generic, I think, doesn't mean anything too cool like yours does, Hinata-chan. But it's a good name for a fighter, a good match for a tough guy like me."

"Tough guy?" Naruto was obviously amused and holding in laughter but Ryūko somehow managed to completely ignore him and focus all of his attention on Hinata, who really just wanted to leave. She played with her fingertips again, hating the habit but soaking up the comfort it offered her in the face of a nerve-wracking situation.

"That's right though, you were pretty tough too. I'd like to go head-to-head with you, like full on. I'm a lot better than what you saw today, I promise, you just caught me off-guard. I'm good, _really_ good. So what d'you say? Next time you're around grass country maybe we could—"

"Well, that's it, nice meeting you but now we have to get going. Come on, Hinata-_chan_." Naruto sang, either oblivious or callously uncaring that he had just blatantly interrupted Ryūko's inquiry. And then he did something so uncharacteristic that Hinata lost her footing and tripped as he dipped forward and grasped her wrist, pulling her along right behind him. Ryūko sputtered, turning to watch them as Naruto marched them in the direction they'd entered the village.

"Hey. Hey! Next time you come around I want that fight, okay Hinata-chan?" Hinata looked back at him, feeling lost and a little dizzy. She couldn't remember if she managed to respond, verbally or through a gesture, but she wouldn't mind getting to fight him to gauge her strengths against him, though something was telling her that she wouldn't get the chance.

Naruto's grip around her wrist was hard enough to create pressure but it didn't hurt, and the contact didn't bother her at all. She allowed him to pull her along, though her cheeks were hot and her brain was out of commission due to the simple fact that Naruto was voluntarily touching her. He marched her right through the town, now lit with streetlights and the every now and again torch lamp, with less people out on the streets than earlier but still enough that they had to move in a single file method. Hinata stayed close to his back, careful not to step on the backs of his feet but close enough for his jacket to brush against her tummy.

They arrived at the inn they'd booked for one night at Naruto's insistence, something about taking a breather from so many days in the forest with no good food to eat. Naruto still hadn't released her, in fact, he didn't let go of her wrist until they were at their door and he had to slip the key in the lock. She massaged the area he'd held, partly to encourage blood flow and partly to have her hand where his had been. She was embarrassed at herself for doing such a childish thing, thinking that because he'd had his hand on her skin that if she laid hers over the same space, it was like she was touching his hand too. She watched him approach his bed and chuck his holster onto his pillow, uncaring how dirty it was. Hinata moved around him to her own bed, bending down to unwrap her own holster and grab her sleepwear: a plain black shirt and matching pants. She was planning to use the shower and rub the sweat and grime from the day off her body, but as she stood up she watched as Naruto ran a hand shakily through his hair, abnormally unbalanced.

"Naruto-kun?" she whispered in concern, too quietly for him to hear.

"Who did that guy think he was, though?" he asked, though his tone made it obvious the question was rhetorical. "As if he could even come _close_ to fighting head-to-head with you. You pushed his face into the dirt in minutes and he couldn't even land a solid hit on you! I mean obviously going against someone as strong as you, it's not gonna be easy, but if he can't even get one punch in? You'd kick his ass, believe it." The latter was whispered so low Hinata wondered if he even knew she was in the room with him anymore, though she was charmed by his words and felt that he was subconsciously praising her strength. Did he know that his words were compliments to her, that those words caused flowers to bloom in her ears, and birds to take flight in her stomach, flapping their wings and making her feel fluttery?

"Naruto-kun?" she asked again, a little louder this time. He turned to look at her, looking as though he really _had_ forgotten she was there, his eyes big and his hair wildly tussled from running his fingers through it. He raised a brow at her, crossed his arms and leaned back on the heels of his feet.

"We both know you would've kicked his ass, that's obvious. So would you have still fought him? Even after all those shady things he was saying?" Hinata looked at him, really looked at him, trying to figure this unknown mood of his out. She watched his eyes watching her, felt her fingertips connect with one another subconsciously, and finally she came to a conclusion she almost couldn't make herself believe.

Was he jealous?

It would stick to his character if he was jealous but didn't understand it, didn't understand why he was jealous of Ryūko or why it _mattered_. He was kind of clueless when it came to understanding the _why _of things, usually he just pushed through them and went straight for presenting the _what_ of it all. It was like how he felt with his team: he loved them more than anything, and that was enough. He didn't have to explain why, didn't really have the experience with explaining away his feelings to detail why he loved them other than the fact that they had always been his, and he would always protect them.

Was it true, then? Was he jealous of Ryūko? Jealous for _her_? She didn't have experience with anyone becoming jealous of someone because that person paid her special attention, or at least, not that she knew of. Sometimes her teammates followed her around for no apparent reason when she was going to her favorite hole in the wall vender with the young man with the kind smile and smooth temperament. Neji always went with her to the market and over time, now that she was thinking about it, whenever she'd had suitors, her teammates all seemed to become even more present in her everyday routines. Kiba didn't like when Neji stole her away for personal training and, though it was incredibly rare, Shino had expressed a darker temperament than usual when Hinata had gone on a few dates with her father's chosen suitor, Mako-san. Had that been because he didn't like him, or had he been jealous? She was almost certain it was the former, because Shino had known how devastated Hinata had been upon hearing her father demand she let Mako-san take her out a few times. Her heart had been entirely secured by Naruto, and yet she had a duty as heiress, and so she'd fulfilled it. Although, she had gone into those dates treating them as friendly information sessions, both about him and herself. So Shino must've sensed her unease and reacted accordingly, with anger and distrust towards the young blonde her father had chosen for her. But beyond that, had her teammates ever had moments of jealousy over her, over their loss of time with her? She wasn't sure, didn't really think they'd be so particular over the time they got to spend with her, especially since she spent _most_ of her time with them anyways, but it was definitely possible. Though, thinking back on it, she felt bad that she might have made her teammates and Neji feel uncomfortable or sad because she didn't show them enough attention. There wasn't really any positive emotion other than a small amusement and deep feeling of belonging that they might covet her so closely.

This feeling, however, with Naruto, was different. Somehow, it made her feel so _happy_. As if her feet weren't even touching the ground, as if she was floating and the only thing anchoring her was her uncertainty. But then again, it didn't make sense for Naruto to be jealous of Ryūko, a complete stranger to them. If anything, wouldn't he have been jealous of Neji, who spends more time with her than anyone in the world, even more so than her teammates? Or what about her teammates? Had Naruto ever been jealous of them before, or was this some strange outlier experience where Naruto just reacted strangely to Ryūko's personality? Some small, quiet part of her thought maybe this was Naruto's first time realizing he cared about her enough to be jealous for her. And an even smaller part of her hoped that this was Naruto's way of realizing, that maybe, maybe, he actually _liked _her.

In response to his question, nervous and jittery after such hopeful but fragile thoughts, Hinata maintained her honesty with him and nodded her head. Of course she would allow Ryūko to fight her. Knowing almost nothing about him, she could enjoy going against a complete stranger with all she had and seeing how much she'd managed to grow. She lifted her eyes and watched Naruto frown, his brows pulling down in displeasure. Knowing that Naruto, for whatever reason, wasn't exactly himself right now, she decided to take it easy on him and help him get back to his usual stability. She knew how to bring him back.

"Naruto-kun, if a ninja you didn't know wanted to fight you, a friendly spar with win or lose consequences, what would you say to him or her?" Naruto didn't answer right away, another sign that he wasn't feeling quite himself. He thought about it, his eyes flickering over her face, and she knew he was chasing her trail, following her breadcrumbs.

"I'd fight them." She nodded, smiling.

"So would I."

"So it's not because it was Ryūko you'd be fighting, it's because it could be a good fight." The way he said it, she knew right away that this was what he was getting so hung up on—the fact that she might have wanted to fight Ryūko because there was something about him as a person, and not just the thrill of a good fight. Naruto's eyes were clear as day; he needed this confirmation. Taking the situation as seriously as he was, she simply nodded her head once. Just a dip of her chin, confidently done while holding his gaze. He understood immediately, his natural grin rising to curl his lips and crinkle his eyes as his hand reached back to scratch his neck—back to normal.

"Okay but you'd totally kick his ass, Hinata! It wouldn't even be fair!" he sang, turning and practically skipping into the bathroom. Hinata stood still, not really looking at anything, just listening as the sound of the shower turning on filled the room. She set her essentials down on her bed, not minding that Naruto had taken the shower first when she'd been planning to. She smiled, lifting her hands to press them against her cheeks and talk herself out of acting like such a lovesick child.

"You don't know if he was really jealous, don't be a fool," she whispered, closing her eyes and patting her cheeks a few times as if that would make them cool down a little. She kept thinking about his face when he'd turned to her for the first time since they got back to their room, his face so naturally childlike in its jubilance had been screwed up into one of very grown up frustration, incredibly unusual for him outside of a battlefield. She couldn't get the memory of his eyes, burning with sincerity, pools of fire she realized now that she looked at them in retrospect. She was about to give herself a good talk about behaving like the mature woman she was when she was interrupted by an acoustic distraction coming from the bathroom. She fell silent, opening her eyes and listening closely, wondering what it was she was hearing, and then she realized: Naruto was humming.

"Idiot," she whispered as her cheeks became even hotter.

* * *

After that night they had surprisingly fortunate weather and sleep cycles their entire journey back to Konoha, with fluid conversation and plenty of amusement between the two of them. It was almost like what had happened with Ryūko and the following conversation in their room hadn't even happened at all, if Hinata was being honest. Naruto had been his cheerful self and hadn't brought it up once and if that was how he wanted it to be then she would follow his lead. They walked through the front gates with smiles on their faces, greeting the guards and letting out their own respective sighs as they headed straight for the Hokage tower. They were to deliver the scroll, by hand, to Tsunade directly, wait for her to read the contents and follow up by corresponding to obey her next orders. Their following mission in Amegakure could possibly change depending on what was written in the scroll, though Naruto seemed to think there wouldn't really be much change no matter what the scroll said.

And it seemed he was right, on account of Tsunade deciding to keep the contents of the scroll to herself and a few choice Jonin, much to Naruto's disappointment and starving curiosity.

"We went all the way over there just to get something we don't even get to see," he grumbled, fingers laced behind his head as he and Hinata walked out of the tower. They had one day to rest before they were to move out once again, this time heading for the poor country shrouded in dark, weeping skies. Naruto was a little depressed about it, but Hinata had a more optimistic opinion on the matter. She quite liked the rain and thought it would be a nice change from the constantly sunny skies in Konoha, though she loved them too.

"Well, as Hokage, it is up to her discretion."

"Yeah, well, when I'm Hokage it'll be _my_ discretion." Naruto grinned over at her when she laughed, his eyes crinkling and little crow's feet wrinkles appearing at the sides of his eyes. Hinata studied them for a brief moment before turning away, feeling light as a feather. They came down the stairs and waved at a passing Shikamaru who looked absolutely _labored_ with a clipboard tucked under his arm and a yawn stretching his mouth wide.

"Yo," he yawned, slouching as he passed by them. Hinata smiled kindly and returned the greeting while Naruto did the same. When they came to the front of the tower they moved to part ways, Hinata to head back to the compound and begin packing and having a thought to find Neji and ask for some of his time just to talk, since she hadn't seem him in a little over a week. She suspected Naruto would run off to find Sakura and ask her to spar and so she turned and gave a polite nod of her head and whispered a goodbye, telling him she'd see him the next morning. Just as she was turning, his voice reached out and stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Hey Hinata, you hungry?"

She turned slowly, almost disbelieving. What were his intentions? Was he just curious? Did she look hungry? Unconsciously lifting a hand to press against her stomach, she nodded, wary of his response.

"Wanna get some ramen? I'm starving." His hand lifted and hesitated in the air, almost as if he had caught himself in the act that seemed second nature to him, though he tried to cover it up as his fingers continued reaching down to massage the nape of his neck. She didn't know what she had been expecting, really, but his easy comfort in asking her to eat with him threw her off kilter, though she accepted all the same. His grin lit his entire face up and he turned, gesturing for her to walk with him, already jumping into describing the best items on the menu for her so that by the time they got to Ichiraku, they'd be ready to eat immediately. Hinata could only smile, attributing the clenching muscles in her stomach to hunger and not the nervous butterflies that seemed to commute whenever Naruto was around her.

She moved to walk beside him, staring anywhere but in his direction, wondering how she looked being that she was still in her travel-wear and was probably dirty and her hair needed to be washed. She wanted to sigh, to hold her face in her hands. Of course the first time Naruto asks her to eat with him she would look disgusting and there was even a very definite possibility that she smelled. Naruto himself was sweating bullets, his black and orange jacket sticking to his broad shoulders. She decided that it didn't matter, that he was just as dirty as she was and therefore they were even. Or at least, that's what she told herself, and for once she actually believed herself and ended up feeling comfortable regardless of her disgusting state.

Until Naruto reached over and settled his hand in the center of her back, as if to help propel her forward, as if to steer her in his direction. If not for her own strict self-training in confidence and stability in reactions near Naruto over the years, Hinata would've fainted right then and there. Her face heated and she glanced around at the people passing by and sure enough, they were capturing the attention of quite a few patrons. Hinata bowed her head, allowing her hair to curtain around her, a protection she still hadn't grown out of. Naruto's hand was burning a hole in her back and the heat was too delicious for her to focus on anything else. She was surprised she didn't stumble, or full on trip and fall face first into the dirt. She could hear whispers around her and she wondered if they were talking about her? What would they say? She glanced at Naruto, noting how he still wore that easy smile though his eyes were more serious now, almost…contemplative. It was rare to see Naruto actively lost in his own thoughts on account of him being so easily distracted. He could usually walk down a street and find at least fifty new things to look at, talk about, or connect to a story.

But for some reason, even after she picked up his rhythm and was right beside him, he didn't remove that hand. It ghosted over her like a breath down her spine, sending shivers in its wake. She tucked one side of her hair behind her ear and checked the crowds around them, both those walking past and those at vendors. There were still far too many gazes focused on them for her to feel relaxed, especially when some of them were cupping their mouths and speaking into a neighbors' ear. She hoped they didn't get the wrong idea, for Naruto's sake.

Ever since he had saved the village from Pain and become a hero, famous on a level where his face and name were known in every country, he had had a lot more attention from the population but most especially the female variety. It seemed that Naruto, who had always been envious of the female attention Sasuke had garnered in the academy days now had his own little fan club running around causing trouble. Not that he knew what to do with it, though. Hinata thought it was cute and hoped that it made him happy, or at least gave him a novel sense of being desirable enough to have an actual following.

Now that she thought about it, she was probably on the hit list of several young women now that this scene was out in the open. Hinata didn't mind being on their hit lists, she could take care of herself, but she didn't want anyone to misinterpret the situation and have it put Naruto into an uncomfortable position. Naruto was the kind of guy that just did things like this on impulse, he liked to make contact, to initiate touch and he was most certainly a hugger. This was just something that Naruto _did_, and she knew it, but she hoped the people witnessing it knew it too. From their mischievous looks and the sneaky gleams in many pairs of eyes she saw watching them, Hinata realized they were most definitely misinterpreting the situation. She just hoped that when this came back to Naruto—most likely through Sakura given the gossip that was sure to go through the mill and end up on Ino Yamanaka's doorstep—he wouldn't feel awkward or uncomfortable and try to explain to _her_ that he was just being himself. Not only would that be just crushingly awkward, but she was positive it would make for a few weeks of Naruto feeling uncomfortable around her because he wouldn't want to hurt _her _feelings.

She let out a small sigh, covering her little bout of distress with a smile when Naruto glanced over at her. She wondered if his hand was as hot as it felt, or if that was just her hyperawareness creating the effect of leaving the mark of his handprint on her skin.

* * *

She wasn't entirely sure yet, but Hinata was beginning to think that there was a pattern forming between her and Naruto.

It had been a week since they'd left Konoha and settled in a broken down Amegakure inn where they were the only guests but were still charged as if they had four other people with them. And in that week of travel and adventure, Naruto had not once brought up either the mission in Kusagakure or the time when they went to eat together. Hinata refused to bring it up, having convinced herself that Naruto had forgotten all about those things, or hadn't even really noticed them as anything peculiar. Maybe that was it, she had found herself into thinking during their travels; maybe those instances were insignificant enough that they weren't even on his radar? Or maybe they were moments Naruto had gotten out of his system, just a little extra friendliness to make her feel comfortable around him. Hinata had convinced herself that that was the case: that Naruto had been trying to help her feel at ease since she was so awkward, and now that she was able to move freely around him without any hesitation, he would put an end to such behavior.

She threw that theory out on travelling day three, when she and Naruto had been sitting in front of their fire together, watching the embers flare up and disappear into the darkness of the night sky. She'd been leaning forward, chin resting in her hands and hair falling around her face, enjoying a beautiful moment of complete relaxation next to one of her most cherished friends. Actually, now that she thought back to it, she realized how ironic it was that she'd been thinking about her latest theory at the exact moment he decided to obliterate it. She'd been staring at a rock that had slipped into the coals underneath the logs, blazing red-hot right along with the rest of them when Naruto's raspy voice cut into the silence.

"Hey Hinata?"

"Mm?" she'd hummed, so amazingly comfortable with him that she allowed herself to be informal. According to her clan, she might as well have grunted at him.

"I was thinking about something." And he paused, which at the time Hinata hadn't thought much of, though in retrospect that was a little strange. It was the new contemplative Naruto that she wasn't quite used to, the part of him she didn't know how to react to quite yet. She hummed again, still staring at that red-hot rock, watching it burn brighter than all the wood coals beside it, wondering if in time the heat would break it.

"I was thinking, when we get to Ame, and we have some free time," and there was another pause, strategic and purposeful, just before he took her theory and threw it into the fire to burn and become nothing more than a puff of smoke. He leaned forward until he could see her face around her hair, a small smile curling his lips at the corners, his eyes burning brighter than the fire even in the night. He reached forward, his fingers gently tucking the curtain of hair separating her face from his sight right behind her ear, and then he left his hand there for long enough that she began to overheat. She could've sworn her ears were hot enough he could feel the change in temperature.

"Would you wanna spar?" he finished, his voice a shadow of his normal volume. Hinata would've agreed to anything he asked, she thought, as long as he kept his knuckles resting against her cheek and his fingertips on the shell of her ear, using that tone that was low and gruff. She'd nodded her head, breathless, embarrassed that she reacted so intensely to something so simple, but her mind had been spinning out of control. Her acquiescence made his eyes squint happily, and then his fingertips and knuckles moved against her cheek, just once, so gently she almost didn't feel it, a careful touch he probably didn't even realize he'd done.

That's what she'd thought, anyways. If she'd have been able to read his mind in that moment, all she would've gotten was a reflection of her own, a spiraling turmoil sewn through with confusion that left him feeling unstable but at the same time, somehow, comfortable. As if it was okay that he was spiraling so long as he could touch her skin and feel anchored, stable in the fact that his fingertips could feel the softness of her heated cheek. Naruto couldn't figure any of it out and it was frustrating not to understand what was happening to him, but ever since their mission to Kusagakure he'd felt different around Hinata. He'd look at her randomly and want to touch her, her hand, her cheek, her shoulder, anywhere he could. And more than anything else, he'd wanted to spar with her. The thought of her sparring with that sleaze ball Ryūko made him want to barf, but it also made him feel dangerous, which also scared him. In fact, it had scared him enough that he'd actually ignored his behavior that night, which he knew she didn't deserve, tugging her along after him like that, demanding things of her he had no right to. And damned if she didn't set him straight, albeit in that kind, gentle way she had in doing things.

He felt like a child discovering the world for the first time. Everything he experienced with her was new and amazing and he wanted it all, but it scared him, because he couldn't understand it. And for a while, that had made him back down, had made him feel defeated, until the one night he had between their missions where he sought Sakura out and just put it all out in the open, everything he was feeling, all his confusion, the way the world seemed a different place, a better place, when he was with Hinata.

He could still remember the look in Sakura's eyes, it had made him nervous, the knowledge, the sympathy kindled with genuine happiness. She hadn't explained that look, or the feelings behind it, but he had a feeling he'd understand it some day soon. He'd taken her advice and her challenge, _Naruto Uzumaki letting something tough defeat him so easily? Not fighting back? Are you serious?_ And he'd realized, _damn_, she was right, when was the last time he _ever_ backed down from a challenge? Had he ever, before this moment? The answer was clear and easy: he hadn't. And he wouldn't now. He didn't care if it scared him or made him frustrated that he didn't understand, he'd take his own instinct and Sakura's advice and he'd just do what makes him happy and never back down, not to any challenge, especially not to one that isn't between fists, or words, but of the heart.

And as for Sakura-chan's advice, to tell Hinata everything he'd shared with his best friend, he felt that he'd come to a mature decision regarding that advice. He wanted to figure himself out, at least a little bit, before he goes spouting things out all jumbled and unclear. He was not the boy he used to be, he _did_ have control of his emotions to an extent and he could put a lid on it when it mattered. He had changed a lot since he was a young boy, and if anyone deserved a mature and sincere approach, it was Hinata. So he'd changed his mind around and decided that starting the first day of their travels, Naruto was just going to go with the flow. He wouldn't ignore his actions anymore either, because even he knew without Sakura's added punch in the gut that putting Hinata in those strange situations that probably made her feel really uncomfortable was really disrespectful to her. Soon he'd be able to put his feelings into words, he knew it, if he could just make himself _understand them_.

He couldn't even distinguish if his feelings for Hinata were the same as his feelings for Sakura. Maybe Sakura wasn't a good model for comparison, since he'd met her when they were just children and had been close for years. Hinata's friendship was new and fresh and maybe that was why it was confusing to him, because she was a beautiful girl that was his friend but he hadn't had years to figure her out or get used to her like he had with Sakura. He didn't really have any close female friends other than Sakura, did he? Was this new and confusing time due to him growing close to Hinata in a way that was similar but not exactly the same as with Sakura? His feisty pink-haired friend was the only female friend he had to compare Hinata to, and that made it difficult to match his feelings well enough to put him at ease.

As far as Hinata was concerned, however, Naruto was still following through with this pattern of doing something that at the time he doesn't realize twists her up inside and then ignoring that it ever happened in the first place. How could he graze her cheek with his knuckles like that, let his eyes light up when she agreed to spar with him, and let them crinkle closed when he tells her, "I won't go easy on you!" And she feels those damn butterflies in her stomach take flight all at once? It just didn't seem fair, but so long as she could convince herself that he was done with this pattern of his, she wasn't going to say anything. She wasn't going to make it any more awkward than it probably already was.

And so they managed to make it to this Amegakure inn, paying double the expected rate. Though, neither Naruto nor Hinata minded, really, because they'd had to walk through some pretty devastating areas in order to even find a working inn and were relatively willing to help as much as they could in any way possible. As she'd thought, though, the rain was a welcome change from the always-sunny weather in Konoha, at least for her. Naruto looked like a drowned rat because he'd refused to put his hood up the entire way in, but Hinata had managed to keep the majority of her hair dry, save for the tips.

They moved into their room, a tiny space with one bed that came with no sheets or blanket, and a fireplace that seemed dangerous but usable if they were careful. The bathroom could only hold one person at a time and the walls, toilet, shower, sink, and tiles on the floor were all variably covered in rust and mold. Hinata was thankful that they'd be spending so much time outside doing reconnaissance rather than staying in this room, but it was humbling coming into such an impoverished area when she was an heiress with a bathroom bigger than this entire room back in Konoha.

"What side of the bed do you want?" Naruto asked, setting his pack down by the bed and staring down at the mattress and it's thin sheet cover. Hinata had purchased one rather small blanket in a village they'd passed through a few days ago, just in case. It seemed to be a wise choice, since there was no way they were going to sleep on the bed sheet without catching something and continuing on the mission sick with fever or the flu. Moving around him, she spread the blanket over the bed and leaned back up to stare at the small space, her face heating when she finally realized they'd be sharing this tiny bed and they'd have no blankets to hide anything or keep them warm.

"Doesn't matter to me, Naruto-kun. You choose."

"I'll take the side closer to the door."

"Okay." Since the rain in Ame never seemed to stop pouring down, there was never complete silence. The pitter patter of the water falling in sheets against the roof and the window comforted Hinata, made her feel relaxed even in the midst of a mission. She changed her clothes in the bathroom and came out in her all-black sleepwear, coming out to find Naruto sitting on the floor with a kunai in hand and a map laid out before him. Following suit, she sat down beside him, knees bent and legs folded beneath her, leaving enough space between them to be comfortable. Naruto pointed with the kunai at the place where he encountered Mangetsu, then at a few specific places where he guessed there could possibly be activity. Hinata soaked in the knowledge, memorized the areas and instantly began planning how she could be most effective with her sight. They both sat there, listening to the rain crash against the window and the rooftop, thinking over their own personal strategies on account of planning to split up and cover twice the ground, since they only had clearance for a week in Ame.

After a few more minutes of reflection, Naruto rose to his feet, stretched, and took his shirt off all in one motion. Hinata averted her gaze, cheeks blazing, and rose to her own feet, stretching her knees, which were used to the polite sitting position but still had a dull ache that was inescapable. She wandered over to the bed, telling herself that this sometimes happened, that not everyone was privileged enough to always get a two-bed room, that ninja and kunoichi shared sleeping quarters all the time and it was _normal_.

But it wasn't normal for her, not when her teammate was also the man she was in love with. Still, she forced herself to lay down wither back facing Naruto's side of the bed, and closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep before Naruto could get out of the bathroom and join her. She didn't get very far given that she was stiff as a board and wired from nerves. She heard the bathroom door open, the quiet padding steps of him approaching the bed and the moment of hesitation before he crawled onto the bed behind her. They weren't touching and they'd both settled, so Hinata felt herself slowly becoming more and more drowsy, comfortable enough to let her heavy eyelids slip shut.

She didn't know for how long she'd fallen asleep, the room was still as dark as it had been when she'd laid down though in Ame it was always dark. The rain was still falling in sheets against the window, playing a harsh but rhythmic lullaby against their room, comforting her back into relaxation, her eyes slipping closed. They shot right back open when she felt an arm come around her and Naruto's knees tuck up under her own so that her backside was pressed entirely to his front. Her body went rigid instantly, her heart racing in her chest, pounding so hard she was sure he could feel it. His arm was wrapped around her tummy, an area she was self-conscious of, and now she felt like she could barely breathe. She forced herself to calm down, reminded herself that they didn't have a blanket, that he was probably cold. She managed to convince herself pretty thoroughly before she felt his nose nestle into the side of her neck, and then a curious softness ghost over her nape.

Naruto was nuzzling her neck.

There was no way she was going to be able to get any sleep, she was so completely energized and awake and aware of everything in the entire room. She felt his hot breath against her skin and she fidgeted nervously, unable to stay still. She heard his breath leave his body, felt his arm tighten around her and his cold feet press hers to the mattress.

"Hey, stop moving around." He whispered, his breath blowing the hair around her ear forward. She went rigid again, thought she might've squeaked an answer in response though she wasn't sure, and stared ahead in the darkness. She wanted so badly to activate her Byakugan and actually _see_ him pressed against her like this, because she'd only ever seen this scenario in her dreams. She wanted to hide her face in her hands but she didn't want to move, either, so instead she stayed completely still, and completely awake. She stayed like this for a few minutes, scared to even breathe, when she felt Naruto's thumb rub back and forth against her clothed stomach.

"It's okay, Hinata, I promise. Get some sleep, okay?" he whispered. Hinata took a big breath, held it, and released it slowly. She focused on the rhythmic pattern of his finger as it gently moved back and forth on her stomach, allowed it to calm her down and bring her back to herself, sans the intensified nerves. She took another deep breath before letting her entire body relax, slinking back into the hard muscles of his chest and stomach just slightly, feeling his chin rest on her shoulder. A smile stole over her lips, her eyes closed tight and her heart fluttering in her chest like a bird in a cage. His words had settled her down, had reminded her that she could trust him. _It's okay,_ he'd said. And it was, or it would be. With Naruto's arm around her, she would be okay.

"Okay."

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**A/N**: Um...hi everyone (≖﹏≖✿) I am so sorry for how utterly late this update is, but my life's gotten really hectic. I mean, I just moved to my own place for the first time, I'm at a new university, and my classes are _intense_. So yeah I'm very short on free time lately but I really do try to update this story whenever I can. I'm doing my best! Hopefully you're all doing well, thanks for your time and your reviews!Take care of yourselves~


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